Trying to be a Smart Shopper

[susandennis]

dizzdvl asked a very good question in a comment and I thought I'd elevate it to an entry. She wanted to know how I know when a website online service is safe.

The short answer is that I do not ever know. Every time I order online, I take a chance. Of course, every time I give my credit card to a waiter who takes it away, I take a risk, too. So there are two things I do to help my odds.

I evaluate every risk carefully and I stay intimate with my finances.

Evaluating the risk: Every time my card leaves my sight or my card number goes somewhere, I pay attention. Has the restaurant been there for a while? Does the website look like they know what they are doing?

It's more a gut feel than anything else but there are signs I look for:

• In general, I do make sure that any screen I enter my credit card number into is a secure page - that the http in the address has morphed into https.
  
• Is there a phone number and street address anywhere on the site? If I am in doubt and there is not phone number, I usually go somewhere else.
  
• Does everything seem reasonable? Are they asking weird questions or not providing enough information?
  
• If the item is available on more than one website, I definitely check a few. Not long ago I was looking for a particular item and noted that the listing, including a typo, was exactly the same on each. Yellow flag there easily.
  
• In the case of a service like sending a fax, I want to see a lot of the action before I give them my credit card number. I hit a couple of sites that wanted my credit card number before I got answers to my questions Wrong.
  

I much prefer a site that gives me the opportunity to 'create an account' or not. And I will rarely even order from any site that will not give me a shipping cost BEFORE I give them my credit card information. I pay way more attention when I'm spending big bucks and not so much for $25 and under.

All of this is relative. I recently ordered something I could not find anyplace else from a site that broke most of the rules above and even ripped up my sacred cow - tracking. No tracking number - no order status at all. And the website looked a little shady. BUT, the item was less than $25 with shipping and I really really really wanted it and no one else had it. They do have a toll free number and I did call it and they seem kosher.

Staying intimate with my finances: And I am dead serious about my credit cards. At least once a week, I check every credit card account I have(4 actually) online. Three are basically inactive. For the one I use most often, I checked literally every day. It's as routine a part of my online day as checking my LJ Friends' page. If something goes wonky, I'll know it in less than a day.