What I do is tell them that I will send the beginning 12 digits of my credit card by e-mail and then send a following e-mail with the last 4 digits and expiration date. Good or bad, it works for me. By the way, my credit card is protected from fraud, as I am sure yours is.

budman,
we do exactly same way. cc in two emails. Sometimes we fax. Or, we scan and email in attachment. Of course we monitor our cc account.

I just sent my reservation deposit by email, 2 parts.

Thank you for the tips. Now I am off to watch Airline.

OK, now I'll tell my story. As I said I constantly send my CC info in emails and never worry about it -- done it hundreds of times.
This year for a reservation at a hotel in Wales, they specifically told me to email the number in two parts. Following orders and thinking they must have some sort of problem there, I copied the first email and changed the part with the second half of the CC number in the second email. I sent them both. Just before we headed off to Europe I realized that I had never received a final confirmation from this place. I emailed them again and they said they had never received the second half of my credit card number. (I wonder if they were ever going to tell me, or just cancel the reservation?). I strongly suspect that when they looked at the second email, they didn't realize it wasn't a duplication of the first email and just deleted it.

So while I've never had a problem sending my info in an email, I HAVE had a problem sending it in two parts.
Anyway I've never figured out why if someone is deliberately opening your emails or their emails, why they wouldn't pursue it to get both halves of the number instead of just the first half. It certainly takes no more skill to open two emails than it does to open one.

I'm probably overlooking something, but I'm curious as I've seen it said several times now over the years on this board.

I'm wondering what people believe is more likely to happen with secure information in an email that isn't as likely with a fax? Given that the incredibly vast majority of fraud is committed by people on the receiving end of this kind of information, why would an email be less secure than a fax? Identity theft through the interception of emails by unknown persons in between is less likely than winning the lottery. At least email <i>might</i> be password protected and read by selected people at the hotel. A fax sits there on the machine, able to be read by anyone working there.

Or, now that I read the thread through... yeah, what indytravel said.

Patrick &amp; Budman
I too send my CC info by two transmittals.
I also follow up with third e-mail asking that my reservation be confirmed.
Last week I made a reservation via Smooth Hound for a room in York for 23 Sept. and sent my CC by two e-mails. I received a standardized response to the second e-mail from the B&amp;B thanking me for the message . Not hearing more
I followed up a few days later
asking if they had received the second half of my CC number. The B&amp;B responded that they HAD NOT!
I immediately sent it off and then they confirmed.
As I will be staying at seven B&amp;B's during my trip I made certain that I have a print copy of all my confirmed reservations.
If a hotel,B&amp;B or whatever doesn't receive all the numbers they may think you changed your mind . I would hate to arrive late in an afternoon and find no room available .
&quot; What can go wrong...&quot;