Sri Lanka Post goes for 'Prepaid Accounts'

by Uditha KUMARASINGHE

Sri Lanka Post has decided to introduce a "Prepaid Account" as an alternative to the credit card, where the regional community will have some difficulties in getting the credit cards.

The prepaid account would be a very simple concept, where any customer could create own account by only visiting the nearest post office and could use the account for any transaction at anytime.

This is exactly the same facility that one can get from a credit card, but this is more like somebody paid in advance for his or her services, a Postal Ministry spokesman told the Sunday Observer.

He said the customer can re-charge the account at any post office spread throughout the country and the account can be created for the Sri Lankans who live abroad as well.

When customers buy items from this web store, the amount that needs to be paid will be deducted from the Prepaid Account.

With this business model, Sri Lanka Post is always at an advantage as they would receive the money well in advance before any purchases are made.

Initially, this prepaid account system will be introduced for 647 main post offices in the country.

The Ministry hopes to introduce this prepaid system to customers by the end of March this year, the spokesman said.

In Sri Lanka the credit card penetration is comparatively low.

Due to credit frauds being reported, many Sri Lankans are reluctant to use their credit cards to make online purchases.Even though many other countries have successfully implemented e-commerce sites by only providing payment facility via credit or debit cards, this model of payments may not be the best when applied to the Sri Lankan context. Therefore, the introduction of prepaid account would be a very good alternative for Sri Lankans.