How to send credit card and passport info to china
 

I am going on a private tour with a company from X'ian They wand a deposit (credit card) and passport info. I am worried about doing so thru email.

Has anyone sent this info and how?

Thanks David

Did the company specifically say they want it by email?

When we booked one of our trips, the company provided a secure link to a website where we could charge our deposit. I would ask if they have an option like this first.

I sent cc information once via email. I split it into multiple emails when I did so. Had no issues with it but I can understand your reluctance.

I would never, ever send credit card details by email it is just not secure. You may just as well post it here! If there is a fraud, you credit card company would likely refuse to help. I would only pay via a link on a legit website. Even then, I would be reluctant given the hacking record of the Chinese.

If they are asking for this then they are either not legit or just a very small operation without the facility. Either way, I would either use another, more established operator, or insist that I pay on arrival. Surprising how often the the latter option works.

I use two hotels that require one to send CC details.. one in Paris and one in London.. I have stayed at both before.. they both allow one to FAX the details.. but I just send them in split emails..

However.. personally I would not do that for China.. it would have to be fax ..

Can you book the tour through a travel agent.. you could pay her/him and then agency could send the money..

I'm another person who would NOT provide that information, nor would I want to work with a firm that requested it.

Might I ask: What do you hope to see with this tour? Most of the sites in Xi'an are easily seen without a tour.....

I would never send cc details in one email or split over two. It beggars belief that anyone thinks sending credit card details over one, two or several emails is in anyway secure. Sending an email to a London or Paris hotel with cc details is not more secure than sending an email to China. Email is not secure (unless you have ability to send Secure Email). Fax is also not secure, that piece of paper lying around with your details on it.

The tour company should provide a secure means of paying.ie a website with a secure payment gateway. I also would not work with a firm that requests ccd details by email. Ask them if there is another way you can send the details. Hotels are mostly online, either on their own website or on booking.com and other such websites and that provides a secure way to provide cc

Doesn't your bank allow you to use a one time number for a single designated transaction? Stealing the data is useless.

I booked a tour from Elysian Tour who was also based in Xi'an as I remember. I was offered a link in the email which led me to pay thru PayPal which I did and it was quite safe to do so. You might ask this tour company to do the same.

If it is a reputable tour company then I would send a fax and consider it safe. Or print the info out and scan the thing into a pdf or jpeg, then e-mail that. Or just do a screen capture and send that.
And/or send an encrypted e-mail.

Sending a jpeg, pdf or a scan of the card as suggested above is no more secure than putting the details in the body of an email. You would be exposing the whole balance of your credit Limit to fraud, not just the amount of the payment and the bank would likely just say it was your own fault

PayPal as suggested by saraontheroad is a good option as it costs the vendor little or nothing to set it up and you are effectively paying by cc just with PayPal inbeween which provides the security you need as it is to PayPal that your cc provider will deal with if things go wrong.

I have sent credit card information split between two emails, although not recently. I don't think the risk is that great. However, I would not send passport information that way. There is, of course, an old-fashioned alternative - snail mail. And why do they even want your passport information?

Also, I agree with kja that a guide is unnecessary, in fact may be a hindrance. Guides in China will spout the government line, and take you to shops and eating places that give them kickbacks. Take a good guidebook instead. Or, if you insist on a guide, wait until you get there to select one.

A pdf or jpeg as an attachment is more secure in an e-mail than plain text. They require a bit more to read Splitting the number into two e-mails is also better than not splitting. Those methods take more effort from the bad guy to defeat, including if the snooping is automated.

You could call them on the phone and give them the information. Up to you to worry if the line is tapped.

A fax is good. Yes, there is that piece of paper lying around. But, so what? No matter how you communicate the info it is going to be recorded either electronically or on paper.

No, that is not how it works.

Where loss is due to negligence of the customer, such as sharing payment credentials, the customer will bear the entire loss until customer reports the unauthorised transaction to the bank. It doesn’t take long for thieves to clear an account.

Clearly each country’s consumer credit legislation will vary, as will each banks custom an practice. However, with the growth in online fraud, banks are becoming increasingly hard on customer who demonstrate contributory negligence.

Basically, why risk it when there are plenty of operators out there with secure payment options.

Why? Because there is not that much risk. Sharing payment credentials is not negligence. It is what you do. That part about being tough about contributory negligence is just wrong.

I think we are talking about credit cards issued by banks in the USA.

I think the concern that you mentioned once did apply to debit cards, not credit cards. I think the consumer liability issues with debit cards have improved.

Credit card fraud is not much of an issue if you are paying attention. There is no way that any of my credit cards are going to be run up to their limit. It is just not going to happen. Not even close, not even half way. If a charge for $1000 came in from China and I didn't tell the cc company to expect it then I would expect that charge to not be approved.

I shared my payment credentials once and there was an issue. The "sharing" was with Priceline for a hotel in Miami. Within two days someone tried to use the card to buy a ticket on Carribean Airlines.. I am thinking it was someone in Miami at the hotel. The card issuer, I think it was an Amex, did not approve the charge.

PayPal is just another place where your info can get hacked.

That last post is wrong on so many points that I just cannot be bothered to address them.

If anyone is inclined to send financial information by email or any other insecure method then good luck to you.

I don't know about UK cards, but with some US cards it is indeed true that a foreign transaction will not go through unless you have told the company you are traveling. I say "some" rather than "all", because Capital One has stopped requiring notification. However, if a large charge came through from a foreign country I would expect it to be stopped and that the company would contact me. I have had this happen for charges for considerably less than $1,000.

"Because Capital One cards now use EMV chip technology, you can make secure transactions abroad without notifying us in advance."

The chip defeats counterfeit cards.The article at the link below is several years old, before the EMV, but it discusses some of the anti-fraud tech which I assume has improved. They look at patterns of usage and patterns of fraud.

https://creditcards.usnews.com/artic...-before-you-do