Advantages of using Credit Card

The best way to pay for online purchases is with a credit card and it’s a great idea to get a credit card that you use exclusively for online shopping so that you can quickly and easily review the charges each month and be sure they match what you actually bought.

Paying by credit card online is fast and safe. Yes, safe. Credit card companies are working hard to protect their customers from fraud. Credit card companies don’t they can.

- Additional security

You can dispute the charge if there’s a problem, such as if the merchandise doesn’t arrive, doesn’t work, isn’t what you expected, or you returned it and didn’t get your refund.

- Online retailers accept credit cards

Virtually all online retailers accept credit cards, either as a direct merchant or through an online payment service. It’s a good idea to check to see what payment method the merchant accepts before you spend too much time shopping.

Most accept Visa and MasterCard. American Express and Discover charge merchants higher fees than Visa and MasterCard, so some online retailers don’t take those cards.

Smaller retailers may not accept credit cards directly but may accept them through online payment services

Here’s how online payment services work:

- You set up an account with details on how you want to pay (credit card, bank transfer, whatever).

- When you want to make a payment to a seller that accepts that particular payment service, you just tell the service who to pay.

- The amount is charged to your credit card or withdrawn from your account and immediately transferred to the seller.

- If the payment cannot be made electronically, some services will issue a check or money order — this is most commonly used when buying items from individuals overseas.

Most online merchants do not accept cash — and you shouldn’t pay with cash anyway. Cash is easily lost or stolen, and you have no way of proving how much you sent if the total doesn’t arrive.

Don’t use a debit card for online purchases. While most online payments are processed without a problem, if yours happens to be the exception, using a debit card could give a hacker or scammer access to your entire bank account. While debit cards do offer some security and fraud reimbursement programs, most debit cards do not offer the same level of protection that is available with a credit card.