Cash is unsafe, credit cards are tempting and cheques can be expensive. But one way or another you have to pay for what you buy.
Over the next few weeks Personal Finance will take a look at some of the best ways to handle the form of payment with which you feel most comfortable.
The most obvious and, for many, still the preferred way to pay for purchases, is to use cash.
The two biggest security risks in using cash are the possibility of receiving forged notes and being robbed. You can also be short-changed, but you are unlikely to lose as much as you would from the other two incidents.
To protect yourself from forged notes, you need to know what you are looking for. The security features on the new series of notes from the SA Reserve Bank, which are in circulation, include the following:
* Window security thread: A special security thread is woven into the paper, showing as silvery stripes from the front and, when held up to the light, showing as a continuous line on which the letters "SARB" can be seen;
* Watermark: When you hold up the note to direct light with the main motif facing you, the watermark appears on the left. The watermark is the same size as the main motif and is its mirror image. To improve its visibility, very little is printed over the watermark;
* Perfect registration: Bank note printing represents the highest form of precision printing. A design in the bottom corner of the note is printed in perfect registration on the front and back of the note. When the note is held up to direct light, these two parts, seen together, combine to form a perfect "R";
* Intaglio printing: This is a special printing process which raises the main motif and various other features above the surface of the paper. The texture of the printing helps to establish the authenticity and, together with special raised dots, will help blind people to determine the value of the note; and
* Sound: The SA Reserve Bank also says real notes have a "characteristic sound" "if a genuine note is flicked between your fingers, it has a characteristic sound unlike any other paper". I tried this with an otherwise genuine note and it sounded like ordinary paper, but conduct your own experiments.
The ideal would be to check whenever you receive cash that the notes are not forged, but that is completely impractical in the pressured circumstances of banking and shopping. Unfortunately, the person who holds the note when it is found to be forged is the one who loses the money.
The second problem with cash is that it can be taken from you very easily. One of the areas where you are most vulnerable is at automatic teller machines (ATMs).
Standard Bank says in its brochure "Stop ATM Crime!" that ATM fraud was initially limited to card swaps but it is now more common to vandalise machines so that the cards get stuck and then, through various ruses, customers are persuaded to part with their pin numbers.
Standard Bank suggests that you do not key in your pin number until the machine prompts you to do so; that you stand close to the machine to hide what you are doing when you key in the number; and that you never give your pin number to anyone, not even a bank official.
Don't accept assistance from or give help to strangers and check the card you take away from the ATM machine is yours.
Other tips it suggests are that it is preferable to take someone with you if visiting remote ATMs. When you cancel a card, which you should do immediately it is lost, swallowed or stolen, ask for a reference number which should include the time.
If you still feel confident using cash, then don't miss next week's column where the costs of using it will be discussed.