How Risky Is It to Use a Credit Card Online?

This is one of the most common questions that online merchants

Every day millions of people hand over their credit cards to retail clerks and waiters. They read their credit card numbers over the phone to everyone from travel agents to pizza delivery people. They sign credit card slips in restaurants and walk away, leaving their numbers sitting in plain sight of dozens of strangers. And they worry about sending credit card numbers over the Internet? Clearly this is an issue of people becoming comfortable with new technologies.

By comparison, using a credit card on the Internet is extremely safe. Any reputable online store uses e-commerce software that encrypts a customer's credit card number and renders it unreadable before sending it over the Internet. Once a card number is stored on a merchant's computer, things get a bit more complicated — if a server isn't properly configured, credit card information might be exposed to unauthorized users. But a secure online store makes this almost impossible, and more stores are learning how to provide the best possible security for their customers.

If all else fails and something does go wrong, credit card issuers provide the same protection against online fraud and theft that they provide for "real world" transactions.

Identity Theft

The issues surrounding credit card fraud also hold true for the larger problem of identity theft. Namely, the risk of exposure is significantly less on the Web — most identity theft is traced back to paper mail, not some shadowy criminal somewhere in cyberspace hacking a database. In addition, the security of data transmissions is increasing every day.

For more information, visit these two helpful Web sites: The National Consumers League and Fraud.org.