Using the internet to make payments to utility, phone, credit card, insurance, and other companies saves considerable time and effort. It is also a simple and convenient way to contribute to charity either directly or by sponsoring participants in money-raising activities. There are, however, risks associated with online payments and you need to take care when making them. They carry the small risk of thieves stealing your payment information, but you can reduce the risk of unauthorised charges by using the best payment method for each situation.
To some degree, you can rely on technology to protect yourself. Your financial details typically are encrypted, but even when you do everything right, there’s a chance of a data breach or intercepted traffic. Common payments choices online include credit cards, debit cards, or payment services like CloudBanking. Depending on your concerns, one of those choices might be better than another.
Here Are 5 Tips for Paying Safely
- Use credit card details for payment
Credit cards are among the best online payment options because the Fair Credit Billing Act limits your liability in the event of fraudulent charges or mistakes. You will have zero liability if you report a card lost or stolen before it is used fraudulently or if only the numbers and not the actual card are stolen.
Additionally, many credit cards offer fraud protection and other security features that wipe out the $50 of liability allowable under the FCBA. Consider keeping a virtual credit card that you use only online. You can keep a closer eye on that account, and you won’t suffer the inconvenience of updating your monthly billers if you have to ditch that card number. CloudBanking offers virtual card numbers that can be used for online purchases, protecting your actual card number.
- Pay with your smartphone.
Even just carrying a wallet can be annoying, at a time when everyone wants to be as light as possible. But with just your mobile phone payment app, you can pay for that drink at any cafe without having to carry around any cash or cards. In this sense, shops needs to offer customers a wide range of payment methods to avoid losing sales. The number of payment options is becoming larger and larger, and each person has their preferred method. For this reason, CloudBanking Payment Gateway provides various payment methods, allowing businesses to cater to the needs of each client.
- Make payments through trusted websites.
Normally, when shopping, customers try to find the lowest possible price. Despite this, it is important to be cautious, especially with huge offers that seem too good to be true. Most of the time, when we see a price that is much lower than other websites, we become suspicious. This doesn’t mean that these offers are always fraudulent, but we should trust our instincts and try to seek a second opinion when deciding whether we are dealing with a scam or not. In this sense, tokenisation, which is always implemented by CloudBanking Payment Gateway in the payment process for customers. Thanks to its security system, the cyber-criminals can only ever steal the token, but this information will be of no use to them.
- Public Wi-Fi
One of the easiest ways for thieves to steal information is by hacking public Wi-Fi hotspots, so it’s generally a good idea to avoid making any online payments from your local coffee shop or shopping mall Wi-Fi. If you must use a public Wi-Fi connection, make sure the website you are visiting is fully encrypted. The easiest way to tell is to make sure every page on the site has a URL that begins with “https” as opposed to “http.”
Also, avoid using mobile apps that are connected through public Wi-Fi hotspots because it’s more difficult to be sure that they are secure.
- Be Conscious
If you ever become a victim of card theft or duplication, the first thing that you should do is notify your bank to try to stop any transactions that the criminal may attempt. CloudBanking Payment Gateway advises that you report to the relevant authorities with a complaint.
Typically, when a fraudulent payment is made with your card, you will receive a full refund, but this process can be slow. Following these steps can mark the difference between avoiding this type of difficult situation.
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