Credit cards and internet security
There are some basic rules you can apply to make sure that you do not end up with an interesting credit card bill to pay when your security has been compromised on the internet. If you are a millionaire being stung for $23k to rent videos and download pay as you use web content, it will probably no more trouble you than having a fly in your car. But if you earn a modest income and every cent counts, this could be disastrous and risk your very well being, what can you do and what are the best strategies and tactics?
The first tactic is to divide your forces, what does this mean? Well, it’s simple – decide what you intend to pay for on the internet, for example occasional purchases from sites like Amazon for a birthday gift for a nephew or even books you want to get early warrant buying off the internet, check how much you spent last year and put that to one side. Let’s assume your annual spend was $200, next are you paying for utility bills on the internet, now this could cost more so you need to check your consumption and when the bills become due, ensure you have the necessary funds in your credit card account to pay the bill.
Next, you should always have a good anti-spyware, anti-virus program or a firewall to ensure that you do not become a victim of internet crimes. In today’s changing technology times, this is absolutely needed. For navigation, when you go to the checkout page of any site or even to the one where you register your personal details, look down to the bottom right of your browser screen, if you do not see the little padlock symbol signifying that your internet supplier has a 256K encryption security to hide your details from potential hackers and identity theft burglars, you should get off the site as soon as possible. These are dangerous ground and if you trust the site, send them an email to tell them you love the products or services but they are insecure and need to do something to sort this. The surprising thing is that many bona fide suppliers do not have a clue about how their site can compromise your security.
Even with the best 256k double reversed security, sites can and will be hacked, and your details can be stolen for identity and credit profile cloning. Firewalls can be overloaded and denial of service (DoS) attacks mean the support staff cannot reach their servers to stop determined hackers getting in and taking out all your details, you need an alternative strategy for damage limitation, so what is it?
Step 1: Go to your bank and ask for a debit card, banks will have them and they work in this way, you decide how much to charge from your credit card into your debit card to cover your expenses.
Step 2: Understand that if you pay with your debit card, the vendor may block the initial deposit for example, $100, at the start and then your eventual payment of $100 for up to 20 days that means you reserve whatever you are buying on the 1st of the month. You pay for it and it is delivered on the 7th, there will remain a blockage of $100 for the elapse period. But the good news in this case is that if a hacker enters your account, he will find absolutely nothing to steal and that’s got to be good news!
