Safest online payment method

Nothing is more convenient than being able to shop for your favorite items from the comfort of your own home. However, this convenience comes at a cost. 

Traditional shopping included the customer visiting a brick and mortar store and paying in cash directly to the cashier. This transaction only had two parties involved, so it is much easier to keep them private and secure. 

Modern transactions have entirely revolutionized the way people send and receive money. There are multiple payment methods available. Some are more secure than others but all the online payment methods can be exploited. For an online transaction to take place, the customer’s personal data and financial details need to be sent over multiple payment networks and servers. This involves multiple stakeholders and creates many loopholes in security for hackers to exploit.

Let’s take a look at some of the most common online payment methods and analyze how safe they are.

Credit cards

This is the most popular payment method. Users can swipe their cards on POS terminals and payment machines at stores, while also using the same card to do online shopping. Modern credit cards include an EMV chip which makes them even more secure against unauthorized transactions.

Voice payments

The popularity of smart homes and smart assistants in the last 5 years has caused a shift in how consumers pay when shopping online. A big percentage of users have integrated their bank accounts with Amazon. This allows them to pay for things just by giving out voice commands to Alexa. 

Hey Google offers a similar payment method where users can pay for online purchases via voice commands given to Google smart home devices such as Google Home. 

As per the recent news, Apple has scrapped its plans to incorporate a similar payment method with Siri, citing security concerns. It’s a widely believed fact that Apple takes the privacy of its users very seriously. Therefore, it is safe to assume that voice payments are not totally secure.

Mobile payment apps

Mobile payment apps are one of the safest methods to make online payments. They incorporate multi-factor authentication, which makes it highly unlikely for any cybercriminal to steal your funds. The most popular mobile payment apps include Venmo owned by PayPal. Other famous apps include Google Pay, Xoom, Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay.

All mobile payment apps have a wallet where you can add cash from your bank account or any other method of your choice. After that, you can send money to anyone in their wallet. Using mobile payment apps on smartphones adds multiple layers of security. The phone is password protected, the mobile payment app is protected with a password too, and to authorize a transaction, users are required to do biometric verification. All these added layers of authentication make mobile payment apps the safest method to make payments online.

Unsafe online payment options to avoid

Debit cards

Debit cards are extremely unsafe to use. Unlike credit cards which allow users to make payments on credit and later pay the bill, debit cards are linked to bank accounts. This makes it impossible to reverse unauthorized transactions, as the money gets withdrawn from the bank account right away.

Adding debit cards or credit cards to unsafe websites

Not all online shopping websites are safe. Some websites would indulge in malpractice. Many unsafe websites get breached very often and all customer data is lost to hackers and cybercriminals. Such breaches are usually followed by people losing money via unauthorized transactions that a cybercriminal does on their behalf.

Always use a VPN

No matter which online payment method you opt for, it will be of great help for you if you are connected to a VPN when making transactions. When connected to a premium VPN, all the data sent and received from your device will be encrypted. This will make it impossible for anyone to trace your data back to you and misuse your financial information for their own good. 

PureVPN is the best VPN that can make all your transactions completely secure. When connected to PureVPN, you can become completely anonymous online. This means that you will remain safe from all threats and attacks that could affect other users on your network. 

No matter which device you are using or which country you are located in, always connect to a VPN before making any online transactions.