Posts Tagged ‘online payment’

Shopping online is one retail activity that seems to be thriving, even during tough economic times. More people are now using the internet for their shopping needs. According to a recent study released by McAfee, Inc., the worlds biggest security company, and carried out by Harris Interactive, “72% of consumers said the economy has not changed the way they shop online.” Instead, the study revealed that “fears about online security and personal information are the biggest drivers behind terminated online sales.” The study also found that, “nearly half of consumers have terminated an order or abandoned their shopping cart due to security concerns.”

Legitimate online retailers are now embracing the best and most effective security measures to protect their customers. In recent years, there have been a number of technological advancements that have made online shopping more safe and secure.

In order to protect credit card and other financial information from being stolen, e-commerce sites now use secure transaction methods when customers order and pay for products from their site. After placing an online order from a secure verified site, the customer clicks on the link to the page containing the order form. The customer will then be taken to a secure section (i.e… https://) of the merchants web site.

Once completing the payment form, they will click the submit button and send the order by way of https:// to the secure e-commerce server. A secure site will have a padlock in the browser window or SSL trust marks. It is important to note that the recent study released by McAfee, Inc found that about “60 % of consumers feel safer when shopping on sites with a trustmark and 47 % of consumers look for trustmarks to feel safe when shopping on a lesser known site.” As well, the survey found that “one-third of consumers would rather buy from a smaller website with a trustmark than from a larger, more well-known online retail site.”

Online merchants use the Secure Sockets Layer protocol, which encrypts sensitive information and securely transfers the data over the SSL connection. The transaction takes place over a secure encrypted connection such as https://. When a web browser points to a secured domain, a Secure Sockets Layer verifies both the server and the client. An SSL Certificate enables encryption during online payments and transactions. An encryption method is established with a unique session key so that secure transmission can commence. The SSL Certificate contains distinctive and verified information about the certificate owner. A Certificate Authority authenticates the certificate owners identity when it is issued. The SSL Certificate sets a private communication connection allowing encryption of the data during transmission. Encryption will scramble the data creating secure privacy. Each SSL Certificate consists of a public key and a private key. The public key is used to encrypt information and the private key is used to decrypt it. If an unauthorized user is able to capture the data, he or she will not be able to decrypt the transaction.

Shopping on the Internet has quickly become a major part of the U.S. economy. Because of the fears about financial and personal information theft, online merchants have stepped up to the plate and taken steps to alleviate consumer fears by implementing the most advanced security measures designed to keep online criminals from accessing their accounts.

Online payment processing company provides industry leading payment gateway services for card issuers and businesses that accept credit card and INTERAC direct payments.

We now use our mobile phones for everything that we do. We talk on them, we text message, we email, take pictures, record videos, send those pictures and videos in messages, play games, and so much more. But now you can use mobile technology to make bill payments. That is how advanced this system has become

But how secure is this system? Is it something that you really want to do? Many individuals are not secure with this sort of system and others are. That is why it is good to evaluate the situation to see if this is something you would like to do.

Security Many individuals have mobile phone carriers that enable them to make their mobile phone payment right from their phone. Their payment account information is already in the system, so all they have to do is push a button and their payment is made. They then don’t have to worry about their payment again until next month.

But due to the fact that the Internet has become available on mobile phones, there are people wondering if they can make their other payments over their phone just like they do with their personal computers. Is it as secure?

Well, since mobile Internet is being phased out because mobile phones can access the same Internet that personal computers access, it is fair to say that it is just as safe. If you are accessing a secure site over your phone, you should have no issues making your payment. The only problem that you may encounter is the fact that you have to have a solid connection when you carry out your transaction. This will not compromise your security, but could result in you actually making a payment twice if you’re not sure it went through the first time. This can result in you having to consult with the company you made a payment to and telling them that you had a connection issue that resulted in a double payment.

Conveniences and issues It is very convenient to be able to make payments over your mobile phone, but there are still some phones that do not support the more advanced Internet access. Because of this, you may not be able to make your payments over your mobile phone, especially since thee are some websites that are not mobile enabled. They won’t display right or will not be able to give you the option to pay at all. In this case, you would be better off making a phone call to make your payment.

But the convenience of it cannot be denied for the fact that you can be sitting on a bus, on a subway, in a cab, standing in a long line at a department store, or even at a sporting event and pay your bills. You don’t have to wait until you get home in order to make your payment. You can do it right then and there without any issues. Just make sure you have an adequate connection to ensure that you can process the payment smoothly.

Will you do it? With this said, will you do it? Will you make your bill payments over your mobile phone? If you are in a situation where you need to make a payment right now, this may be a viable solution. This is especially true if it is the difference between you getting a very high late fee or not getting a very high late fee. If accept credit card payment, it could be the difference between having to pay a higher interest rate because of a late payment and not having to pay a high interest rate. That is the convenience of making payments using your mobile phone.