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Buying Online
A lot of rubbish is spoken about buying stuff online, usually spoken by someone who knows someone who knows someone who has had a bad experience. But let's look at it for a moment. When was the last time you bought something from a 'High Street' shop and walked away completely happy with our purchase?
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You would be hard pushed to think about a purchase that went completely smoothly, and you didn't have to get a refund, or it broke soon after you got it home, or you were charged too much and didn't notice.
In the early days of online transactions, there were a few glitches, the security was rubbish, your credit card wasn't safe, and things went wrong. But now it's a lot better, and I mean a lot better! Your credit card is as secure as if you were taking into a 'real' shop, in fact in some cases, it's more secure. Remember the days of carbon copy transaction slips? What happened to all those carbon papers with all your details on? It wasn't that long a go was it? Nowadays you have chip and pin, fraud protection and so on. Things have improved a lot. So why shop online? It's quick, easy and mostly pain-free, as long as you follow a few simple guidelines. Let's look at how to purchase online. |
First of all, shop on sites that you know, or at least you know you can trust. An example would be eBay, everyone and his dog has heard about eBay, it's about as safe as it gets despite all those forum sites telling you of their terrible experiences. Trust me, if it wasn't safe, I wouldn't use it! Of course there are errors, just as there are rip-off merchants out there trying to pull a scam, but isn't that the case in all walks of life?
Rule 1
Never use a website that you are not totally happy with. If they don't offer the facility of encrypted transactions over a secure server to pay for your purchases, don't use it.
Rule 2
| How do you know if it's a secure server? Simple, look at the website address in the address bar on your browser, that's the one that looks something like the one below, which is the log-in page for PayPal. You can see that the website address is http://www.paypal.co.uk/uk, and as an added bonus, we can also see the PayPal logo to the left of the address. |
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This is not a secure page, and is not intended to be. Let's move on. Click on the logo or wording on the website that says something like 'Log In' or 'Purchase' or 'Buy now' and you will be taken into a secure page on their site. How do we know? Because the website address has changed by adding an 's' after http... etc.
| Look at the login address bar below for PayPal and you will see the subtle difference. The address bar now reads https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run, see the addition of the 's' (secure). |
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But that's not all, depending upon the type of browser you are using, an additional graphic is added. We use Internet Explorer v.7, so to the right of the website address is a small 'padlock' icon, see it? If you are using Internet Explorer v.6 (or earlier) you will have to look at the bottom right-hand corner of your browser to see the padlock symbol.
The same is true of browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Netscape Navigator, Opera and so on. No padlock - no purchase, it's as simple as that.
Rule 3
NEVER, ever, ever, relay, transmit, give, lend or otherwise copy your credit or debit card details over an unsecure e.mail, not to anyone, no matter who they are, or say they are. No exceptions - ever.
Your bank or building society will never ask you to verify your bank details by e.mail. If you get such an e.mail asking you to verify your card details, your account number, or other personal details, report it to your bank as soon as you can. DO NOT reply to the e.mail, send an acknowledgment or otherwise inform them of your intentions.
Rule 4
Get a receipt! You will normally have to give an e.mail address to the company you are buying from so they can send you a receipt. Print the receipt as soon as you get it, sometimes they will have tracking information on it so you can see where your goods are, and how long till it gets to you. If there is any dispute with your purchase, the e.mail receipt is as good as the one your local shop gives you in a court of law.