Purchasing ease continues to grow, but is it getting out of control or finally solving problems?

Paying for a good or service in favor of ease and convenience can be argued as starting back when debit cards were started by the First National Bank of Seattle in 1978. Debit cards replaced the interest-bearing debt created by using credit cards, which are believed to have started in 1951 in their plastic card form.

Those credit cards are a nice pleasure only if you are able to pay the balance, and I’ve been at fault for only paying the minimum. I continue to pay off my credit card debt, and thus this convenience and ease of credit cards didn’t really solve a problem. They created a greater problem of poor money management.

Thank goodness for our bank system and the idea of debit cards. You only use what you have. But, the problem lies in lack of innovation and still not being able to solve the problem of purchasing and money transfer. It needs to be simple, fast and secure. Traditionally, security has always been the main focus. Thank goodness.

Today, companies like Dwolla, Paypal, Simple and Square are each acting these problems at very different angles. It’s exciting to know that Dwolla is stationed just 35 miles from Ames in Des Moines.

In a sense, how I see things, Dwolla and Simple are redeveloping the banking systems and taking what works today and vastly improving the ease and convenience issues we’ve been faced with like eliminating unnecessary fees and overall poor performance.

Seriously, banks should stick to giving out loans, locking up the vault and being the hubs in our money system.

On the other hand, you have companies like Paypal and Square, who are making any consumer plastic easier for us and the business to handle and use. I highly suggest you go out and do a Google search for these companies because the way we move our money is changing.

Our devices will be our banks or wallets if they aren’t already. Plastic was the new kid in town until it easily was taken advantage for underlying fees and competition. Hindering how money gets transfered only hurts the consumer and businesses involved. And thus these companies and the devices and technology we use today have the opportunity to finally solve the problems involved with money today.

I posed the question to whether these innovations are getting out of control in a sense of many options or rather these companies are individually paving a path that is enjoyable for all in the near future.

I believe the latter possibility has more truth. I tend to be optimistic, but seeing these companies are not making it hard for you to use one service over the other, I have to believe the only problem will be the choice we make.

Where do we put our money, how do we want to consume and transfer it, and whose system do we trust and believe in?

Once these decisions are made clear and practiced to your liking, the respective company will do the hard work of keeping their promises embedded in their service.

The mobile world is truly the most innovative areas in our world right now, and finally people are adapting to the idea of allowing someone else handle the operations of their money.

For instance: Dwolla makes it possible to send money to others that are near by; Square is reinventing the cash register and making taxi transportation a breeze for payment. They all are striving for high clarity in their operations.

Our current banks and credit card companies are certainly not innovating so thank these four companies for leading the charge.