How To Shop Safely Online

Featured Online Shopping Credit Card

Shop safely and securely online with the St.George Vertigo MasterCard which features a free secure online shopping service plus protection from fraud with 24/7 monitoring of suspicious transactions on your card. This is also the ultimate low rate shopping card as it features a low rate on both purchases and balance transfers for the first 6 months.

• $55 annual fee
• 13.24% p.a. on purchases
• 0.99% p.a. for 12 months on balance transfers
• Cash Advance Rate of 21.49% p.a.
• 55 days interest free
• Minimum Income Requirement of $15,000 p.a.
• Free MasterCard Secure Code service which uses a password to validate all your transactions

Read the St George Vertigo terms and conditions.

If you have concerns about how to shop online safely, the main point to keep in mind is that your liability to fraudulent use is limited by law to $50.

Straight away, that makes using a credit card for online purchases a practically risk-free option. You may be caused some hassle if your card details are stolen, but you certainly will not have to cough up for thousands of dollars of illegal purchases.

Things that help you to shop online safely:

• Temporary numbers - The Discover card, and certain banks, like MBNA, will provide you with temporary numbers for online purchases so that you will not have to input the number stamped on your credit card. You may be able to use that number for a recurrent payment with an online merchant, or you may be limited to just one use. You will also not be able to use them if you need to pick up your purchase in person – as with airline tickets – because the number they will have for verification purposes won’t be the same as the one on your credit card.
• A password level - Companies like Visa and MasterCard have their own systems in place that mean any purchases from participating retailers will need to pass through a password phase before the card action is approved. This will necessitate your registering with the scheme and logging a password, but it will only improve your plans to shop online safely if the merchant has also signed up to the system.
• Zero liability – Some card providers, including Visa, MasterCard, DiscoverCard and American Express, offer a zero liability guarantee, which means you are absolved of any liability should your card be used fraudulently. This is the perfect way to shop online safely as you will not even have to pay $50 should your card be used for fraudulent purposes.
• Padlock and https – You should never purchase from a site you suspect may be at all dodgy, but even with sites that seem above board you need to look out for the little locked padlock symbol to appear in the bottom right of your screen when you are in the payments pages of the website. This says the site is encrypted. You should also check that the website’s payments address pages start with https rather than plain http.
• Your own security - No matter how safe the systems at the other end, your efforts to shop online safely may be ruined by lax security measures on your own computer. Without decent internet security installed on your computer, keyloggers may be able to record your keystrokes as you input your credit card details.

Check out today's featured offers:

Westpac Low Rate	Citibank Clear Platinum	Qantas AMEX Discovery	ANZ Platinum
0% p.a. for 6 months on purchases & balance transfers	2.9% p.a. for 12 months on balance transfers	$0 annual fee Up to 10,000 Bonus QFF Points	0% p.a. for 6 months on purchases & balance transfers

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Popular Credit Card Offers

			Interest Rate (p.a.)	Balance Transfer Rate (p.a.)	Annual fee	Cash Advance Rate (p.a.)
	Westpac Low Rate Card - 0% Offer	A credit card with a low rate offer on both balance transfers and purchases, plus a low annual fee.	0% for 6 months (reverts to 13.49% )	0% for 6 months	$45	21.49%
	Citibank Clear Platinum Card	Competitive interest rate on purchases and balance transfers offer.	11.99%	2.9% for 12 months	$99	21.74%
	St George Vertigo	Take advantage of this great offer from St.George with a low rate on purchases and a low balance transfer offer.	13.24%	0.99% for 12 months	$55	21.49%
	ANZ Platinum Credit Card	An introductory interest rate offer on balance transfers and purchases, plus a $0 first year annual fee.	0% for 6 months (reverts to 19.24% )	0% for 6 months	$0 annual fee for the first year( $87 thereafter)	20.99%