Online credit cards and banking protection

Friday June 19, 2009

Online credit cards transactions and online banking has surged over recent years with credit cards being used online in millions of transactions everyday globally. In fact, the majority of businesses, banks and consumers prefer online financial transactions due to the sheer convenience and worldwide access. The online economy is a multi-billion dollar industry with many benefits. However, these benefits are counteracted with the threat hackers and fraudulent scams that are designed to obtain your credit cards information.

Online security is a majority priority for any online business whether it is online banking, online shopping or even private sales online. In Australia, a recent report compiled by Consultants QPR regarding credit card fraud concluded that the actually number of credit transactions where the actual credit cards was not present was approximately $71,578,908 in 2008, which is 33 percent higher than in 2007.

However, there are steps a consumer and online credit cards user can take to protect themselves from such issues including passwords, authentication and with online banking.

Online banking has added a whole new area to the banking industry with bank customers now able to manage their credit cards, check their balances, transfer funds and pay bills online at their own convenience while the bank enjoys online banking as a cheap alternative to over-the-counter services. Proving popular with Australian banking customers the Commonwealth Bank has reported that it alone has more than 2.6 million active online banking customers.

Due to the high numbers of transactions that are performed daily on such banking sites and online shopping sites there are high measures of security in place to protect customers such as an account number and password for some online banking sites. Some sites also offer additional online security with some measures being a password that is sent o the customer via text message, a secondary code automatically generated, an independent security dongle the bank supplies or even a floating on-screen keyboards that prevents keyboard memory devices.

When choosing a password for yourself to use on online credit cards sites or online banking there are several measures that credit card experts suggest that can limit the chances of it being detected or even guessed thereby preventing any unauthorized access to your accounts or credit cards. When deciding on a password, create one that is neither too long (too hard to remember) or too short (too easy for hackers), with personalized password better to be disguised with caps and numbers. Some people suggest combining several small personal words into one easy-to-remember option that only you would know.

There are computer programs available that generate random passwords for the customer with obvious issues of remembering being one factor. However, there are also browsers that offer options of storing passwords in a password protected area.

Online credit cards transactions or online banking may also have a two-factor authentication program which is an additional security measure that requires personal information such as a predetermined question like "What is my mother's maiden name?". This is a simple format but paired with the previously mention security measures of an account number and password it can proved just that much more difficult for hackers to gain access to your online credit cards accounts.

Get the most from you credit cards and compare it against the best credit cards on the market.

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