A friend once ask that "what kind of items can one buy with a credit card on the Internet? For sure it cannot be land or how will one get the papers?" Other questions that sometimes arise include; "How do you get the goods transferred to you"? "How do you make payments and collect the change if any"? "What about fraud"? Funny as these may sound they are honest questions from the average Nigerian. The following article seeks to address some of these concerns.
WHAT CAN A CREDIT CARD BUY ON THE INTERNET?
Virtually about anything on any site that accepts credit card for payment. These include;
- Digital Download able Materials like soft wares, ebooks and CDs which you can get from sites like http://www.clickbank.com/
- Real Tangible Items like watches, computers, clothes, shoes, cars etc. favourite spots where you can obtain these include sites like http://www.ebay.com/, http://www.cj.com/
HOW DO THE GOODS GET TO ME?
This is pretty easy for download able materials as they can be downloaded to your computer within minutes and you don't even need an expert to do that. Sometimes you are given a password with which to gain access, or the material is sent as an attachment to your email. However for tangible items like cars you will have to specify an address where your goods can be delivered. Most merchants in the US will deliver within any US address for a pre arranged price. The challenge therefore for us Nigerians is how to obtain a US address and subsequently transport your goods down here. I have good news for you. Some Nigerian based companies offer goods collection service. GreeNet Ltd offers you dual benefits of comparatively cheap debit cards and a means of transporting the goods you purchase with it to Nigeria. For more details visit http://www.greenetvisacard.blogspot.com/ . Other companies of interest include http://www.graphcard.com/
HOW DO I USE MY CREDIT CARD ONLINE?
The card that will be given to you will contain some special numbers which your vendor will ask for in the online form requesting for card details. These numbers represent a credit balance in a reputable bank that issued the card. What the vendor does is confirm your credit with the bank. This takes an average of two days; once confirmation is done the value of your purchase will be deducted from your credit balance by the bank.
WHAT ABOUT CREDIT CARD FRAUD?
There is no doubt that the use of credit card comes with the risk of being defrauded. Once the scammer has your number, they can in cure expenses you never ordered. The following tips will guide in avoiding online credit card scams.
- Only make your purchases from well known sites.
- Do not be too quick to hand over your credit card number to any site, try and do a double checking, do they use a card verification service like pay pal ?
- Beware of offers that sound too good to be true. An offer of a free trial for a month or two does not necessarily require your immediate card details.
- Giving card details in offers that come through an email is not very safe.
- Be wary of adult sites and pornography. Most online scams occur on these sites and victims don't report because they shouldn't be there in the first place.
CONCLUSION
The use of credit cards even though bedeviled with these drawbacks still remains the most efficient means for online transaction. Better than cash or cheques. If part of these article had been somewhat confusing you are advised to refer to the earlier article on introduction to credit cards. I sincerely hope you learnt a thing or two. Cheers till next week.
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HOW TO RECEIVE PAYMENTS IN CREDIT CARDS FROM CUSTOMERS
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