Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Credit Card Use Online

If you are a holder of Discover or American Express credit cards, you seem to have more options when it comes to making purchases. I'll explain why.

More and more Americans are becoming credit card holders today but by no means all of them take risk of using their card for buying online. Why does it happen when online shopping with credit cards is generally considered more convenient and faster? Well, it's the concern about security and fraud issues that discourages online buyers.

When Discover did a survey of its cardholders, almost half of them worried about the security and 45% said they would shop online more if the protection were stronger.

Thus, Discover Bank, together with American Express, launched a program to win more trust of their customers.

So, if you shop online with a Discover or Amex card you enjoy zero liability. Now you're not responsible if someone steals your credit card number and makes unauthorised purchases. Discover offers one-time use passwords which also ensure more protection. It means you enter a new number each time you buy online. There are also extra passwords available which are known only to you and your card company when you buy from certain online merchants.

All these options target at making online shopping more secure. Well if you don't quite like it that you can use your card only for offline purchases, Discover and American Express cards are sure to give you more market.

And the last thing. If you are going to apply, read the fine print carefully and pay special attention to the fees.

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