The Risks
Online shopping is the current face of business. Many people use credit cards such as Visa Card and MasterCard for going about their online transactions, oblivious of the danger that the cards pose. In fact, many people have and still do fall pray to credit card theft each and every year. As such, many of the online businesses are opting for the prepaid virtual credit cards, which have been around for almost eleven years now. These virtual options have for long been considered safe for online shopping, but it seems the more the cards are becoming safe, the more the theft syndicates are perfecting to aim without missing.
With everything going online, (even our social ties), there is the risk of sharing one’s personal information on various sites. The greatest catch is with the social networks. The little blunders that you make might come to haunt you later. For example, leaving all your personal information like full date of birth and complete details visible to all you socialize with is not only discouraged, but it is financially suicidal as well.
The other risk is to do with our address books and the little notes that we write to remind us of our personal information. Once in a while, we are tempted to include the information about the virtual credit cards, mainly the account number and password. If the paper or book where this is written gets lost, then the consequences can be dire should these information fall in the wrong hands.
Many people tend to assume that online banks are the same as the normal banking institutions. As such, they go to they go to the extent of transferring all their money to the online bank accounts. Make this assumption at your peril.
Safety Precautions
The first precaution is to keep your details of the online accounts as unique as possible. Of course you will have to provide your true details such as name and bank account number, but make sure that the same is not replicated on many other websites especially the social networks. Still on the same point, do not leave your personal details visible to all when using the social network sites.
Forgetting is a very normal abnormality in human beings, but try as much as possible to internalize the account number of your online bank account. It is advisable to deal with one provider of your choice so as to avoid confusing the sign in information. Use address books for their intended purposes -contact information and not as safes.
Last but not least, do not transfer all your money from your MasterCard or Visa Card to your prepaid virtual credit card. This isn’t a safe. Also an important fact to consider is to read the policy statement and agreement of the particular online bank of your choice before registering an account with them.