A few tips for online shoppers
By Kim Komando
Each year, more people do their holiday shopping online. Nothing beats that convenience. But before you buy anything online, make sure you're staying safe — and getting the best deal.
1. THINK CREDIT, NOT DEBIT
A credit card is the safest way to pay online; you'll get security protection from your card's issuer. Visa, MasterCard and American Express have a zero-liability policy. If you notify the bank of unauthorized transactions, you pay nothing.
Also, with credit cards, you can assign password challenges for purchases. This offers another layer of protection. MasterCard offers SecureCode and Visa offers Verified by Visa.
These programs only work at participating sites. To learn more, visit www.master card.com and www.visa.com.
Many credit companies offer one-time-use numbers for purchases. Visit your card issuer's site to check availability. You may even be able to designate which online store can accept the card number.
As with credit cards, many debit cards have fraud protections. You can dispute charges to your account. But with a debit card, your money is tied up while you dispute charges.
2. USE COUPONS
Some online stores provide regular customers with promotional codes. You enter these when you check out. They'll save you money.
Promo codes may get you free shipping or a discount. Stores may have multiple codes, so pick the best one.
If you're not a regular customer, you can still find promo codes. Coupon Cabin (www.couponcabin.com), RetailMeNot (www.retailmenot.com), Current Codes (www.currentcodes.com) and Naughty Codes (www.naughtycodes.com) have them, among other sites.
3. USE PRICE-COMPARISON SITES
Many sites aggregate prices from other sites. Enter a product name and sort through the results. You can sort the results by the lowest price or highest-rated store. Most let you enter your ZIP code so shipping is included.
PriceGrabber.com, Shopping.com, PriceSCAN.com and Froogle.google.com offer price-comparison searches.
When searching these sites, be specific. Otherwise, you could get hundreds of results.
4. USE TRUSTED MERCHANTS
When you buy online, there's the chance that your items won't arrive. Protect yourself by sticking with trusted merchants.
An established site such as Amazon.com is less likely to give you problems. But if you use a price-comparison site, smaller sites may have better prices. So you may opt to give them your business.
Before you do, though, do some research. Read reviews left by other shoppers.
5. DON'T USE YOUR REGULAR E-MAIL ADDRESS
When you buy online, you must provide an e-mail address. The store will contact you with tracking information and order confirmations. You could also get spam.
So create a new e-mail address via a free provider. Hotmail (www.hotmail.com), Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) and Gmail (www.gmail.com) offer free accounts. Use this account when registering and buying at online stores. When your purchases are complete, you won't need to worry about more e-mail from the merchant.
