email vs fax for confirmations
 

Which is safer for sending all your credit card info...email or fax? Seems scary!

Phone call . . .

E-Mail isn't safe or secure at all - it's the worst way to send a credit card number.

I'd do it by phone. Learn the joys of Skype if you haven't: 2.3 cents a minute calling to Europe, and if you bring a laptop to Europe (or even go to an internet cafe) you can use you Skype account to call the US for the same price. All you need is a headset with a microphone, or just a microphone and use your computer speaker and call with Skype as a speakerphone.

I guess I've just been very lucky but I have used e-mail to send my CC details to places all over Europe and haven't had a single mishap yet.

If you feel insecure about it either divide the CC number between two fifferent e-mails or make a phone call. How a phone call diferes from a fax is anyone's guess since you have no idea who is going to see the number at the other end (even if they do say on the phone, "This is Frazquita speaking...") and so forth.

And I agree that saving money is important you aren't IMO going to pay THAT much to make a phone call to Europe to justify getting some special service but that's just my two cents.

Thanks guys...didn't think aout Skype (which I have)! I love this forum!!

It is so simple to send a fax and ask for a confirmation.Hotels most likely will return your fax signed and stamped as confirmed.

I like to use email to send credit card info.

I find the security of a email/'paper' trail to outweigh the risk of the one wrong person intercepting my one of the 30 gazillion emails sent worldwide daily.

I have a $0 cc fraud liability.

We spend 2 months vacationing in Europe every year. I'm currently telephoning, faxing, and e-mailing to ask for reservations, confirmations, and sending CC info. I am also helping a friend do the same - this is her first trip.

I've found that I get better & faster responses to phone calls & Faxes, than e-mails. Just last week I called a hotel in Switzerland after we did not receive a response to our e-mail. They said they responded twice - both times (we found out later) to the incorrect e-mail (a typo).

Stu Dudley

J62, just realize that the risk in emailing credit card numbers isn't just that the email may wind up in the wrong hands, but that unencrypted email passes through various servers worldwide any of which might be able to snatch up your number. (Easy to scan for a certain set of numbers.) Here's just one possibility: the person reading your email with CC info might be doing it on a laptop with an unencrypted wireless connection, which is really easy to snoop.

This is why retailers make such a big deal about having secure online purchase forms on their websites. Credit card info is encrypted and hard to hack. And they've spent billions of dollars to make that happen. If there was little risk in tossing around unencrypted CC numbers they surely wouldn't have wasted the money.

good points Andrew.

For me the benefits outweigh the risks, especially given my $0 fraud liability.

Other people have a different risk tolerance - some higher, some much lower, so there is no one size fits all answer.

My main credit card has a max $50 liability if I report the card lost or stolen within 2 working days of loss. I have 0 liability if I show "reasonable care in safegarding" the card. I don't know if sending the number on a non-encripted e-mail would be "reasonable care".

If I do not notify my card issuer of loss within 2 working days and they can prove that they could have stopped un-authorized losses if I had, my liability is $500.

Also, if my CC statement shows un-authorized transactions, I must notify them within 60 days of the receipt of the statement. If not, and they can prove that they could have stopped the transactions if I had, ALL my un-authorized tranactions may not be re-paid by my CC issuer. This disclosure seems a little vague - I don't know how they could have stopped a transaction 60 days ago if they were first notified today.

I assume this latter disclosure is the one I'm most likely to encounter if someone uses my CC number which they obtained from an e-mail, Fax, or other "non-loss" of my card.

Read your disclosure statement & call the issuer if you have questions. Seems like it's not all that clear what would happen if someone starts using my CC# and I did not actually loose the card & notify them within 2 days.

Stu Dudley