Originally Posted by Styker:
“So are you of the view that it is not safe/smart to use mobile phones to do banking transactions, ordering items, paying for items and inputting debit card details?”
It is perfectly safe, the apps are sandboxed unlike on a desktop and the app itself would use tls/ssl encryption if you're using a banking app. They also authenticate the device too.
I'd say mobile banking is much safer than desktop banking, just always be careful what apps you install though. You'll be safe with reputable apps like what'sapp, but if you go installing games that have only recently appeared on the store without checking reviews and then accept the permissions for full device access then that's a risk, but even then due to app sandboxing you're likely to be ok banking.
If you have a phone that is running newer versions of Android and has security updates even better. Apps are limited to what they can do, each app can do a set list of things with the OS, they are not permitted to interfere with other apps, therefore antivirus on android and iphone is fairly useless / not needed. They can't scan or access the underlying Kernel, they can't prevent install of a bad app, they are really just an "app advisor" for checking if you've already installed an app that has a known bad reputation.