Keeping your credit card data safe

When you are doing any transaction online it is vital that you keep your card details safe. Now, your card details could be a debit card or a credit card, or in some cases, you are actually entering your bank details onto a website, so you need to make sure that when you do enter these onto a website, that you do so in a safe manner. Now, some initial things you can look at is, why are you entering them. If you got onto a store, then make sure you know that store is a reputable store and is one that you have used before or through recommendation, or it has got the padlock symbol to prove that it is secure. Now, just because it has got the padlock symbol does not necessarily mean it is not a fraudulent website. Now, if you are handing over any money online, be careful of any links you click. So you find a link in a website on an email from a site or from a text message or something like that, and it is asking you to pay any money, be very, very cautious. It is often better to actually log into your account with that company and then have a look, then click the link, because it may well be a fraudster is trying to get you to reset your password or confirm your credit card details, and what they do is they will send you a text message or an email.

And then they will say, click in here, and you might be thinking you are clicking into the genuine website, but you are not, you are clicking into something slightly different, and then they will ask you to reconfirm your credit card details, and now they have got them, and then they can use them fraudulently, and because you have just entered in, then it is something that they will start working on very quickly, and they can empty out your bank account or run up your credit very, very fast. Now, if you are buying online using a debit card, it is money coming straight from your account. It is often better to use a credit card if you have one, because at least you are then protected by the guarantees laid down by the credit card provider. So if your card has been used fraudulently, then there is more chance of you being able to get your money back if you are using a credit card as opposed to a debit card. Now, another way of actually transferring money is to open up an account with things like PayPal. Now, what we got here, we just got on to the page for PayPal and PayPal is an organisation that will process payments.

You can register an account with them, you can upload your credit card details to them and you pay through their actual portal, so you are not actually giving your credit card details out to any company, they have no access to them because you are just giving your login for PayPal. So the important thing is when you create your account with PayPal is to make sure that your password and your username are very secure. So do not use a basic one and also change it every now and again to make sure that it is very secure. Now, other options are Apple Pay. So this is just some information about Apple Pay. Apple Pay works through mobile phones or computers, and you can actually store your computer, on your computer, your phone, your credit card, your debit details, and then when you have an option on a website to pay back or pay, you can. And also, you can use Apple Pay from your mobile phone or your Apple Watch to actually pay in a store using contactless payments, so you would literally hold your phone over the terminal and it works exactly the same as a credit card without having to get your credit card out your pocket.

So the advantage here would be is if you are out jogging and you want to stop and get a drink, you can have your credit card data stored in your watch, go to a cafe, pick up what you want and then just hold your watch over the terminal and then you can pay for the item. Now, there are maximum limits you can do that with, but it is a very easy way around of paying. So Apple Pay is one that you can work with, and another one can be the likes of Amazon. Amazon has their own payment system, that if you have an Amazon account already, your credit card stored on the site, and when you used Amazon Pay, which is available on lots of other websites, not on Amazon sites, on other sites, and you can literally use the same credit card number you have got stored on your Amazon account with that provider. But again, you do need to log in, so again, if you have got any credit cards on Amazon and you want to use it on another provider, do make sure that your passwords are secure and also make sure that the website you are actually buying from is one that is as secure as you can possibly find out. So if you are using Amazon Pay or any one of these other providers, do make sure you have a secure password, and also the site that you are buying from is a trusted and secure site.