Top 5 Online Shopping Tips – 1/5
Over the course of the next few days PC Care are going to be posting their top 5 tips for keeping safe while shopping online, particularly over the Christmas period when online transactions increase dramatically as does the efforts of the scammers, fraudsters and identity theives.
Tip 1 of 5
If possible ALWAYS use a Credit Card to perform online purchases.
With a Credit Card shoppers have much more protection when purchasing items over the internet. Also Credit Cards are not directly linked to your bank account so if you should be caught out while shopping online, your current account should remain untouched.
If you do not have, are unable to get, or don’t simply don’t want to have a Credit Card there are a multitude of other payment options such as prepaid cards, where a set amount is put onto a card and this can be topped up as and when required. If a fraudster gets hold of the prepaid card details, they can only obtain whatever funds are left on that card and cannot empty your entire bank account. You also get a similar level of cover and protection as you would with a standard Credit Card so should you
fall victim to fraud you can your money back.
If you tend to purchase a lot of items via the internet and have always used a Debit Card in the past, look out for a rewards credit card that either offers a cash back return for every item you purchase using the Credit Card or has some other loyalty or bonus scheme that interests you. If you are able to use the Credit Card for all your online shopping and pay the balance off in full every month, it does not cost you a penny to use the credit card, offers a higher level of protecting and come back should things go wrong, and who knows, if used enough could accrue enough cash back, or loyalty points to get yourself a little treat.
Check back tommorow for Tip 2.