5 tips to make a safe online purchase

If you're one of those couch potato shoppers who'd rather buy things from the luxury of your home, then e shopping is ideal for you. But e shopping has its share of pitfalls because of the intangible nature of transacting. Moneycontrol tells you how to make sure your e transaction is a safe one.

1. Buy only from popular websites
This applies as much to online shopping as it does to actual purchases. If you want a quality product and real value for money, opt for a branded product - in this case a popular website. There maybe plenty of small time dot com companies offering attractive discounts. But stay away from small time players, even if the bargains are unbelievable. Security should be top priority for all online deals.

Warns Puneet Chaddha, Head - Credit Cards, HSBC, "Customers should ensure that they transact only on well-known sites."

2. Read website terms and conditions
Websites have their own set of terms and conditions that you should be aware of. These are normally available at the time you register yourself into the website. Normal tendency is to put these off for later reading. Try not to be that lazy.

Shopping websites have a privacy policy. This policy tells you how the website will handle your personal information. This is especially important in the light of recent illegal data selling that has been rampant in marketing circles. If the website has slipped in a clause stating that your information can be sold by them, and you have accepted such clause, you have no legal recourse.

Another policy that good websites have is the purchase protection program. Here, the website takes responsibility if you entered into a purchase deal but did not receive your order or received a different product than told to you. However, this is subject to certain terms and conditions. For instance, cash payments may be excluded or you maybe allowed to make just 3 such claims in six months and so on.

3. Go through a secure server
Make sure that you are using a secure server. How would you find that out? The beginning of the web address in your browser window should be "https://" and not "http://". For secure server pages, you should also see a "lock" icon at the bottom of the browser. In addition, sites also have digital certification such as that of Verisign.

This is important when you are giving out important details like your credit card number over the internet.

4. Check with your credit card company about the charge back clause
Charge back facilities allow customers to receive a refund in the event of a fraudulent transaction or if they do not receive the service they paid for.

This is applicable to Visa and Mastercard cards. Most credit cards do offer this facility but it is better to check with your credit card provider whether this facility is available.

In case you discover a fraudulent online transaction or an entry for goods that you still haven't received, in your card statement, you need to act fast. Says Chaddha, "The customer has to get back to us within 30 days of receipt of his bill."  He further adds that you should request your bank to block your card account in case you suspect that your card data has been compromised.

But how do banks ascertain the genuineness of your claim? According to Chaddha, the bank sends a request to the banker of the merchant who sold the goods. "If they come back with a proof of delivery, such as an acknowledgement or a receipt, then we get back to the customer with the proof," he says. Remember, however, your bank may take up to 45 days to respond to your query.

5. A cash and wire transfers
There are several ways in which you can make your payments for online purchases such as credit cards, cheques and drafts or cash. Experts suggest that credit cards, if used properly, are the safest methods as payments are traceable and can be easily tracked. Cheques and drafts are traceable to a particular address and this makes it difficult to track a payment in case of frauds. The same applies to cash. Cash transactions are not traceable and there is no way to prove that payment was made. Experts also discourage the use of online money transfer facilities.

by Deepa Venkatraghavan & Anupama Viswanathan