News wednesday :

ok now we shall begin. of course lot comments la kan.. but this one quite happening...

NEWS 1

No way MyKad can be forged, says Tan

from the star. link : By SIM LEOI LEOI

" However, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho said the situation was not serious and that the authorities were monitoring their activities.

“There is no way a MyKad can be forged because the information in the document will not match the details of the person carrying it, even if the surface of the card has been changed,” said Tan.

“An application for a MyKad requires the applicants to give their thumbprints, which are then matched with the online database at the National Registration Department.” "

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ok here's the thing.
1. The details while can't be matched exactly can always be "matched to the closest details". eg. same age range, same sex, ethnicity same skin colour etc.
not like they can check the photo at the NRD on the spot right?
2. they are equipped with a card reader but its not online.
3. Can definitely be forged as card reader is available/sold to the public. You reverse engineer a bit (if needed lah) and i don't think the encryption of the data in the smart chip that canggih so surely can wannnn.... Remember the story about fraud-proof smart chipped credit cards? got cloned pretty fast innit? mark my words.. it won't be too long till we heard something like "we must improve on the security features!" or "we need an online confirmation, so need upgrade!"



NEWS 2

Maybank aims to woo 100,000 Zing card users

from The Star link

KUALA LUMPUR: Maybank expects to attract over 100,000 users of Maybankard Touch 'n Go Zing card in the next 12 months, said executive vice-president, head of cards business group, Ashraf Ali Kadir.

The contactless smartcard has a microchip and antenna embedded in it, with an auto-reload feature that will provide a fixed RM100 top-up when the value falls below RM50.

Customers are levied a one-time nominal issuance fee of RM10 for the Zing card and a RM2 fee for each automatic reload, with the Touch 'n Go reload transaction billed to the cardholders through their credit card statements.

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hmmmm.... here's the thing
1. Why do they say minimum top up amount to be RM50 when the highest amount for 1 trip is RM41.30 ok la if to include that one off toll at kempas its an additional RM2.10. So the highest probability is that RM43.40. why can't they set the top up amount to be RM44?

I know its a mere RM6 difference but please bear in mind these RM50 min top up is the float ie free money that's sitting in Rangkaian Segar's (touch n go operator). To put that into perspective

maybank alone have 100,000 auto reloads cards. That equates to RM5Million of free float to Rangkaian Segar from Maybank Customers alone. I guess it is safe to say there are at least 400,000 auto reload or those with minimum RM50 before reload which rouhly translate to RM20Million of free float.

there are 2.4 mill touch and go in circulation. Assuming the balance 2 million of the Tn'G cardholder will top up their Tn'G when it reached RM5 that will roughly equates to RM10 million of free float money.

This gives them a total free float of a grand RM30 Milllion of float. What this means though is that they'll get a minimum of RM900,000 of free money from the interest earned by placing all this float in deposit. That is IF we assume they put it in a fixed deposit type of deposit.

What if they manage it slightly differently by putting a portion in long term fixed income intruments like corporate bonds with higher interest, and some other mixtures of investments? I'm sure they'll do this (if they don't then they should fire the CFO or FC) and an average return of more than RM1 million can be easily managed.

With all these extra money Rangkaian Segar still want to charge us yearly fee. Pheeesh!!!! Greedy.. greedy.. greedy....

and please do remember that they do collect commission from the toll operators, LRTs, parking operators etc whenever you use the Tn'G cards and I can tell you that their rate is wayyy better than those credit cards company.


Personally I think it is ok for them to reap the interest return from all this extra floats, if they don't then I don't think they're doing a very good job or being smart for that matter. However, what the above highlight was that they can very well earn some significant extra income without even charging us the yearly fee. Afterall we don't really got charged rearly maintenance fee with our Mastercards or Visa isn't it? (what? you do? choyyy!!!! go and call the bank and say wanna cancel card lah... sure they'll waive it for you oneeeeee ;))

I also believe the customer should be able to determine their own level of top-up, afterall not everybody travel from JB to KL everyday and those RM50 can be better be used to buy goods and help to make the RM move faster.


note : the same thing happened with fastrak/fast tag issued by Gamuda/roadbuilder concessionaraires (LDP, KESAS, SPRINT). they have top up amount of RM20 when max charge for each toll is RM1.50. Go figure

ok mates.. me off...

cheers