728Learn How to Shop Online Safely
posted on January 20th, 2010
Online Shopping is increasingly becoming the norm for many people. People can select from a huge range of goods and services right from their computer screen or even on their mobile phone. For people who hate to have to actually go out to the store the internet has provided them with an amazingly easy solution. As time goes by the number of people who have payment methods such as credit cards and the ability to shop with them on the web increases. It is not just purchasing goods such as woolly hats or women’s winter coats that takes places online, but also booking holidays, paying bills, banking and buying tickets for travel.
One of the issues which can affect people who shop regularly online is delivery. Shipping can be troublesome as some items may get misplaced, stolen or just take an age to get delivered. Some sellers refuse to deliver to addresses different to the card holders address or even to not ship to some countries at all. If when you shop online you are away from home you can get your transaction cancelled as the merchant may wrongly suspect a fraudulent transaction is taking place. By checking your location at the time of purchase the seller thinks you are using a stolen or copied card as the location is not in your usual country of residence.
Something many people fail to realise is that if you buy goods on the web you may be subject to paying customs and import charges. If you are an EU citizen and you make a purchase from inside the EU for example then you will have to pay no charges. But, that same transaction if done with a merchant in the USA for instance could be subject to charges depending on the value of goods involved. Receiving your items from the postman could be an expensive business if they demand a payment from you when your goods are finally delivered.
Due to there being more trade done online these day there is also more opportunity for counterfeit goods to be sold. More than 1000 sites in the UK alone have recently been discovered and closed as they were trading in counterfeit goods. Many shoppers had already been conned by the lure of cheap designer goods before this happened. If you buy such goods from web stores which are not well known then you are taking a big risk. Always check the site you are shopping on to make sure they give a postal address, telephone number and if that offer seems too good to believe then it could well be! If you purchase goods from an auction site such as Ebay then you also need to take care as many of the designer goods sold there are fakes.
