Shopping Online with Your Debit Card
Any time you surf the Internet, you are open to potential online attacks. People are constantly looking for new ways to bypass security systems, punch through virus blockers with a new virus, use phishing scams to obtain personal information. Before the Internet, people were only susceptible through the mail or when an actual person made the attempt to gain information by coercing you into giving up bank numbers and other sensitive items.
Shopping online is a risk in itself. However, new and ever improving safeguards are available to the every day consumer, either through the cards in one’s wallet or though the shopping site itself. An online store wants its customers to feel secure and be secure; otherwise they would never get any business. Debit cards and credit cards are today’s main methods of payment and essentially the only method of payment when it comes to an online purchase. So which is better?
There are a lot of things to consider when deciding to make a purchase with your debit card or your credit card. Because there is the risk that something could go awry and the random hacker could get away with all your important numbers, liability is the biggest issue. How much are you liable for should some thief go on a shopping spree using your money? The downside with debit cards is that people are often liable for more money than if they had used a credit card. And because it is a debit card, all that money goes right out of your bank account instead of just accruing as a balance on a credit card.
However, even liability is starting to fade away. Credit card companies are not just producing credit cards anymore, but coming up with their own versions of debit cards. Because they want their customers to feel safe, secure, and happy – thus possibly getting more credit cards – several are starting to offer little to no liability. What’s more, any money that has been fraudulently removed from you bank account gets put back at the expense of the company. Some credit card companies even offer fraud monitoring which can help catch criminals early. For example, for the past year you have used your card for nothing but gasoline and maybe the occasional doughnut, and suddenly the purchase of $100 in clothing appears on the card. This new item would be considered abnormal, and if you hadn’t reported your card lost/stolen already, you would be notified about this purchase and asked to verify its authenticity.
Not all credit card companies offer debit card options and not all banks offer debit cards with this amount of security. Ultimately, the decision on your debit card use will be up to you. But if you are going to shop online, make sure you have a secure connection at a home computer. Avoid public computers where people with the right know-how can bring up bits of information you have recently entered. If you have a wireless network, be sure to have it secured so no one else can use it. Don’t save passwords, PIN numbers, or card numbers and only shop at sites you know are legitimate and have security in place for their customers.
Stay smart and purchase judiciously (if it’s at a nearby store, couldn’t you simply go there and make the purchase? You could save yourself shipping costs also), and you can feel more at ease when shopping online with your debit card.