How safe is it use a credit card online?
When you go for shopping it takes time to choose the product out of the hundreds that are displayed in the store shelf but sometimes getting a product paid for and packed takes far longer. The most irritating thing for a shopper is to stand in the queues and this is becoming increasingly long in most shopping complexes.
You have an internet connection, just enter online shopping. Books, bags, compact discs, garments, gadgets, anything you can buy online.
In every office people are using computers, even the households are acquiring personal computers and laptops, just few clicks of mouse is all to get that book on the bestseller list delivered to your doorstep.
Is it safe to use a credit card online?
According to K. Vaitheeswaran, Chief Operating Officer of, a popular shopping website indiaplaza, it is much safer to use a credit card online than to use it physically in a store or a restaurant. He said “When you use your card physically, its details can easily be taken down by the person handling it. But when you use it online, the system is routed through a bank. This way it is far safer and the details of the card do not get compromised.”
The website is having a wide range of products for sale, ranging from air tickets to wine and has had over a million customers over the eight years of its existence.
According to the available statistics from the Internet and Mobile Association of India website show that about 77 per cent of shoppers in the country have shopped online more than twice.
If we see the percentage of the shoppers who have bought products online more than 10 times, it accounts to 53 per cent and they are from the 26 to 35 age group.
Now days there have been increase in the online booking of cinema tickets.
According to the data provided by Communications Manager of Sathyam Cinemas B. Supriya, about 750 to 1,000 bookings are made online everyday.
She said only credit cards are accepted for the payment of the tickets and the Sathyam website is secured by Verisign, a well known internet security providing service for payment processing.
“We also give customers the option of choosing their food online which is then delivered to their seats,” she added.
V. Sriram, a photographer who books movie tickets online said, “It is very convenient to book online. It saves the hassle of queues and you can check the availability of tickets of all the movies.”
According to the IAMAI website Chennai alone accounts for six per cent of movie tickets purchased online in the country; following it are Kolkata and Ahmedabad.
Previously online shopping was not very popular as there were not many sites, the lack of knowledge about online shopping and the security problem. Over the last two years online shopping has also picked up pace as the services have improved and convenience many websites offer.
For example Rediff.com, delivers the product to your home and only then payment is to be made. Then there are other services offered by websites such as online auctions, special offers for the day and second-hand dealing.
It is convenient to pay through credit card but if you do not have one then you can make payment through cheques. Some websites accept cheques as well.
When you have purchased a product, a unique order number is given which can be used to track the progress of the delivery.
As all websites use a secured payment gateway, more and more users are turning to the Internet instead of going all the way to the nearest mall for all their shopping needs.