Author: BWAM

If possible, aim to do your shopping with a credit card rather than a debit card. The reason is because if a hacker manages to break into your account, he won’t be able to do as much damage with a credit card as he could with a debit card. Debit cards link to bank accounts; therefore, the hacker can literally drain your entire earnings. Credit cards are not, and due to the Fair Credit Billing Act, a holder’s fraud liability is only $50. Therefore, you likely will not lose as much money.

The most important thing to do before you shop on a new website is to check the return policy. If you buy something that doesn’t fit, comes broken or just doesn’t fit your needs, you need to be able to return it. If the store has brick and mortar locations, find out if you can make the return there.

Don’t give any shopping website access to any social security numbers. Avoid sites that require you to divulge this information. It is not required to make purchases at any online store. If you give them the number, there is a chance you may become an identity theft victim.

Take advantage of online calculators to see if a deal online is as great as it claims to be. For major purchases with financing, this is particularly true. In order to determine if the deal you’ve found is really the best one, run the numbers through one of these calculators. You could be in for quite a shock.