Transaction is not a new word in our vocabulary. Only if earlier, before the end of the twentieth century, it was more often written through the letter “c”, then at the moment the spelling through the letter “z” predominates. Both values are correct and are found in the dictionaries of the Russian language.
Acquaintance with the term
The question of what a transaction is does not drive a person from the world of finance into a stupor. But the financier will be surprised when the programmer begins to explain to him about a group of sequential operations with exactly the same name. And if a physicist talks about the importance of a key concept of transactional interpretation or a psychologist convincingly proves that the unit of interhuman communication is called this term, one can generally doubt the correct understanding of what a transaction is.
But the essence of the word is simple. Latin transactio is translated as “contract”, and the English wording characterizes the transaction as a minimally meaningful, meaningful operation that can only be completed in full. The term is used, mainly as financial, but is found in computer science, physics or psychology.
Transactions in the financial world
If you focus on the financial side of the term, you can distinguish several areas, but almost all operations fall under the definition of this term. The stock is being purchased on the stock exchange - this is a stock exchange transaction. At the ATM, cash is dispensed or another service - this is an ATM transaction. Settlement with a card in a store is a bank transaction. Naturally, the banking component in this term is the largest, so it’s worthwhile to dwell on this issue in more detail.
Banking transactions
A transaction system is all operations related to the use of bank accounts: interest on loans or deposits, and transfers, and the purchase of foreign currency, and card payments in the store, and much more. If operations are carried out in one bank, their speed is almost invisible to the human eye (in the absence of software failures).
A transaction can be approved or rejected, that is, successful or unsuccessful. If it is successful, money is debited from the account of one participant in the transaction and transferred to the account of another participant. It may fail if there is an error in the operation verification scheme. But any result - positive or negative - is recorded in the database. By the way, these cases of approval or rejection of transactions intersect with programming, because banking is impossible in our time without modern computer software.
Bank Card Operation Scheme
Types of transactions are online and offline. The online transaction scheme can be clearly seen on the example of calculating with a credit card at a point of sale. From the inside, this operation, which takes literally seconds, is very complicated. If you do not go into small details, the payment card payment process in the terminal looks like this.
The POS terminal makes a request to the bank serving the terminal. After confirming the identification of the terminal, information about the operation is transmitted to the payment system. After that, the information is sent to the operations center, where the card is checked for the presence or absence of a ban on operations. Only after this information is transmitted to the bank of the card holder. And the bank is already checking the PIN code, checking the availability of money in the account and other verification procedures.If there are no errors at all stages, a positive answer is given and the operation is successful.
For offline operations, conducting thorough verification activities is not necessary. Some card accounts pre-reserve certain amounts available for spending. The operation in the limit of the reserved amount is recorded in the memory of the POS terminal, and cancellation occurs when information is transferred from the terminal to the bank. Usually cards with a chip are used for offline operations.
Security
No need to be afraid of plastic payment cards. Many are used to the fact that money exists only if it is paper money and is in their pocket. In all other cases, they see a hoax. But this is not so. A bank card is specifically designed to improve service. So that a person does not carry full pockets of money packed with different currencies, especially if he goes on tour through several countries. The card represents access to the account on which the money is deposited. And how to manage this account - everyone has the right to decide. He wants to withdraw cash and not even know what a transaction is, please. And he wants to be known as a civilized person and pay with a payment card - easily. If they say that they steal from cards - you can bring a counterargument - cash steal a lot more. If you adhere to the elementary safety rules - do not reveal the PIN code, do not give the card to other people, do not “shine” the card on the Internet (use a virtual card), do not dictate SMS messages to strangers - the card becomes a reliable assistant to the person. And then using it is a pleasant necessity, not a burdensome duty.
Literacy
Ordinary people are not very worried about the question of what a transaction is, even though everyone is faced with this process constantly. But incomprehensible words or objects scare them. If a person received a salary in cash - this is clear and understandable, and if a transfer came to a bank card - this is alarming. If you say the phrase that a person withdrew money from an ATM, everyone understands. And if you say that a money transaction has occurred, it annoys others. And the point here is not limited people. Older people find it difficult to readjust everything new. Young people often grab from the flow of information only what they think is necessary and useful. Now we need to prepare from school not only for the requirements of the modern world, but also for the readiness to receive new information throughout life.