Payments

[LOTUS ELISE]

Hi you all.

I need some help in deciding which is the easiest and secure method of paying a dealer, over the internet.

I would be very grateful for your experience, I live in the UK.

Thanks

[chronoluvvv]

hate to say it but PayPal it is

[sul]

hate to say it but PayPal it is

+1 PP

[Toadtorrent]

The problem is...most of the dealers aren't taking PP anymore...

[maxman]

+2 PP. Did not realize that most dealers wern't taking PP Toad Oh well I guess there Is always cash.

[deniz21]

is paying with a credit card more unsecure? and why?

cause i was thinking to get one for my bankaccount

denz

[maxman]

I have used a cc several times, no problems thus far. Mike

[Jkay]

Paying with a CC is only "unsecure" in that someone can steal your card number and make charges on the account.

I would really really really think twice before I used my BANK ACCOUNT DEBIT CARD for overseas transactions, deniz

Paypal has a special option which lets you use PayPal's special Mastercard number instead of your own when you pay. That way, you're using PayPal at places which dont accept Paypal .. and the Mastercard number can't be used to make false charges

[deniz21]

oh thanks jkay but i never heard about that option ... do i need a master or visa for it or only my pp account. im from germany

[deniz21]

oh i find a option where i can add a cc so and then i can choose the option on places to pay with cc over pp but not with my cc number... thats clever

[Jkay]

Google "paypal browser plugin"

This is a paypal application for your web browser which generates valid mastercard numbers for you on command

[Ronin]

Pre-Pay / Pre-Loaded / Gift Credit Card. Not sure if they are available in the UK, but here in the US you can pick them up in most grocery stores and put up to $500 on them.

Some CC's also offer single use unique card numbers tied to your regular account.

[panerai153]

Never, Ever use a Bank Debit card for these types of transactions. If someone has access to your number and pin Code, they can wipe out your bank account before you ever suspect something is amiss.

I use Paypal every chance possible. Even if you pay with a credit card that is registered to your account, all the merchant sees is the Paypal transaction number, none of your personal credit card information.

Another feasible alternative would be to open up a credit card account with a small amount of available credit (say 1000.00 USD) only use this account for watch transactions. That way you aren't getting your watch transactions intermingled with all your other credit card stuff. Nice thing about this as well ,if someone does get your credit card info, they can't put a lot of charges on your card. The credit card companies are very good about taking these charges off, but you still have to go through the hasssle.

This happened to me a few years back, I bought a pair of reconditioned Bose Earphones on Ebay. This was before Ebay bought Paypal, so you had to pay with a Credit card. I gave them an AmEx card number and security code. hour later got and email back from them saying "Sorry, we are all out of the earphones, we will credit the amount you paid back to your credit card". I didn't think anything abouth it until about a week later I got a call from the AmEx fraud dept. Seems like the people who were running the auction for the cheap Bose headphones were a "Phishing" scam. They were harvesting credit card information, not selling earphones. They or someone they sold my credit card info to charged an Apple Laptop, printer, some Bose stuff, an airline ticket on Alaska Airlines, and tried to buy a Business class ticket on British airways to London! When British Airways tried to run the charge, AmEx told them that I would have to call and confirm the charge, when that came up on the screen, the "buyer" immediately logged off the BA website. What tipped off AmEx was the amount of charges over a short period, plus all the merchandise was being delivered to an address in Arlington,TX., not my billing address.AMEx was great, took off all the bogus charges, but it was a very revealing lesson for me, as to how easy it is for someone to get your info.After this,I got all my credit card companies to put a restriction on my cards that they would not honor any purchase with a shipping address different from my billing/shipping address. Sometimes around Christmas, this is a little bit of a hassle, but it gives me a lot of "Peace of Mind" when I use credit cards.

[deniz21]

wow thats bad

no credit card over my actual bank account then i think i stay with pp i every possible way i can

[lanikai]

In the Yeats that I have used my card there has been no issues (knock on wood)

my dealer pays a high premium for security

and has replaced is cc company once over the years

they blocked me from payment due to high usage and requested an ID

so as he svised not to do this .... He pays more for a secure server

my billing and shipping addy are different as I fill out the form as such

but if you don't feel safe ... Money gram if you trust your dealer same charge as paypal

my bank also blocks transactions that don't fit my past large purchases

and it helps to have a seperate account and card for Internet purchases

[LOTUS ELISE]

Thanks Lanikai very helpful as per usual.

[chronoluvvv]

i've just noticed that Paypal has started dinging me for a 'gift purchase' that was financed out of my bank balance

now i can understand if it were a credit card purchase (someone's gotta pay Amex their share) but this is really in poor form

[LOTUS ELISE]

ummm

[panerai153]

I think it hasn't taken Paypal long to realize most off the "Gifts" transactions were really paying for merchandise. It's pretty easy really if you think about it, most people who send money to family, etc. send even denominations, 100,200, 500 USD for example, very seldom do folks send 76.45 or 99.98, get my drift.I'm sure Paypal figured, just add on the regular fee, and we catch everyone regardless. They would probably defend their position by saying, "We still charge a lot less than WU, Moneygram, etc".