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“LOOK FOR COMPANIES that you’re familiar with and you can trust.”
That’s the number one tip from money expert Kel Galavan (@MrsSmartMoneyHQ) when it comes to shopping online safely this Christmas.
Maybe you’ve been waiting for your favourite store to offer a discount code before you make a big purchase, or you saw the perfect gift for a pal in an Instagram ad. You might even just want to skip the queues in-store and shop from the sofa. But, before you buy, how can you be sure your money and your data will be safe?
Whether you’re a regular online shopper or only make the odd purchase, it’s important to always be cautious when you’re entering your details, says Kel.
Aside from having a complex password for each of your online accounts (a mix of uppercase, lowercase, special symbols and numbers is a good rule of thumb), there are a few steps you can take to ensure your data – and your money – stay safe when you’re shopping online.
From what to look out for on a website you’re buying from to monitoring your card activity, find some expert tips for safe Christmas shopping below.
Pay attention to a website’s URL
If you’re shopping online, there are two key ways to ensure the website you’re using is secure, says Kel. “Basically, the website needs to have ‘https’ at the start of the URL. If it’s just ‘http’, avoid it. What that means is that it’s protected, and it’s able to take payments safely. If that ‘s’ is missing, it’s not protected and there is a chance that your data could be stolen.”
Going “hand in hand” with this, she says, is the lock symbol in the top left side of the search bar. “Look for the two of those to know that the site is able to take payments safely. They’re absolutely critical when buying off any website. Any website worth their salt will have them.”
Do your research on the company
With those two tips in mind, Kel recommends going another step further when you’re buying from a new website for the first time, or if you’re buying from an advertisement you’ve seen on social media.
“Use trusted websites where possible,” she says. One way to do this is to see if the company has a good rating on a consumer review website like Trustpilot, and if the Trustpilot symbol is present on the website you’re visiting.
“Scroll to the bottom of the website and look for the Trustpilot symbol. It’ll have a rating from zero to five. Obviously you want it to be as close to the five stars as possible. The sites who want to do well and be here long time, they generally are signed up to Trustpilot.”
Regularly check your card statement
If you’re making many online purchases from multiple sites in a short space of time – like on Black Friday or the run up to Christmas – Kel advises “keeping a really close eye” on your statement. “That way, you can contact your card provider quickly if you see anything suspicious and they can block future transactions.
“If a suspicious company has your card details, there’s nothing stopping them putting through more than one transaction if you don’t notice it first.”
Be wary of scam texts, emails and calls
Earlier this year, Gardaí issued a warning following an increase in text, email and phone call scams. While you might be expecting updates on purchases you’ve made, Kel recommends only using the website you’ve ordered from to see your item’s shipping progress, rather than risking clicking into an unofficial link and having your data stolen.
If you’d like to be super organised, this trick could be one to try: “Keep track of the things you buy online in a notebook, how much they are and what company they’re being shipped with. At least, then, you’ll know what to expect.”
Avoid saving your card details online
As regular online shoppers will know, many websites include the option to save your card details when you enter them at checkout. While it can be convenient to have your card details saved on a site – especially if you shop there regularly – Kel’s advice is to avoid doing this.
“Don’t tick the box to save your card details for later,” she says. “I’m not a fan of that. Because if the website itself gets hacked, that’s your details gone. It’s a little bit of extra work putting them in each time, but at least you’re not leaving your card details in an extra place where they can be vulnerable.”
With this advice in mind, you can rest easy while buying online this festive season, whether it’s gifts for friends and family.. or a treat for yourself.
If you’d like to shop smarter and safer this Christmas, get the credit card that’s right for you from An Post Money. The An Post Money Classic card has Ireland’s best balance transfer offer with 0% interest on credit card Balance Transfers for 12 months.* Or check out the An Post Money Flex card for our lowest rate on purchases.**
* Information correct as of 15th November 2021 and not subject to salary restrictions, source CCPC.ie. Standard variable rate of 22.9% APR will apply once the balance transfer promotional period ends. 22.9% APR assumes that you draw your entire credit limit in one transaction using your card for a period of one year, and repay in 12 equal instalments, the principal plus the respective interest amounts (if your credit limit has not yet been finalised, we have assumed that it will be €1,500), and Government stamp duty of €30 on the card is charged, the total amount you would have to pay would be €1,666.50. Cost of credit €136.50.
** Rate is based on your financial profile and credit history.
® Mastercard is a registered trademark, and the circles design is a trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated.
Avantcard DAC trading as Avant Money is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. An Post acts as a credit intermediary on behalf of Avantcard DAC, who provide loan and credit card services and facilities.
An Post trading as An Post Money is authorised as a credit intermediary by The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
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I’m looking forward to your post on the all the Hillary scandals.
What scandals? The media keep telling me it’s the Russians
Oh you’ll find those posts over on the Alt-Right fanatic blogs.
@Damien McCarthy: Wikileaks reveal Hillary broke super PAC rules
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZVdGKA8-C8
Can you imagine if Donald did this
“WikiLeaks: Chelsea Clinton Used Foundation Cash for Her Wedding”…http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/wikileaks-chelsea-clinton-used-foundation-cash-wedding/
Lol! The stink of desperation off you now Eddie?
“Clinton directed her maid to print out classified materials”…http://nypost.com/2016/11/06/clinton-directed-her-maid-to-print-out-classified-materials/ negligent mishandling of classified information. Forget your pant suits Hillary, get the orange jump suit ready.
@Damien McCarthy: Trump for president …………………………..
How about an article on all the lies Hillary has told
@Tariq ibn Ziyad: Back to Israel with you!
Back to Narnia with you Chris you mad story-teller!!
Awww, meanwhile in the real world http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37892138
@Tariq ibn Ziyad: Shoo away hasbara!
@Harry Price: Endorsed!Trump ahead on Facebook poll 73,000 to 63,000 this very minute.
Oh Facebook polls, known for their accuracy and availability to absolutely anyone of any age anywhere
Lol. People need to get to work and start building their own interests. This fascination of trump is a clear sign of one thing only… it’s not good folks. Let’s take the strain off the tax payer please.
Oh the emails… oh dear looks like there’s nothing there either http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37892138
I send emails every day. Trump supporters say “server”… I say PC. Trump supporters say “lots of emails”… I say emails, emails, smtp and http. They say private, I say technology and conversation. It’s all too much stuff for even trump fans to comprehend. And it’s such a pity we’re all not being indicted right now for the emails we send to our darling, darling grandmother.
@Dave O Keeffe: the trumpets don’t like real world ….real world is rigged and bad…trumpland good…
This election has also been a sad time for journalism…
Journalism is dead.
The media are as compromised and corrupt as the political establishment.
Haha! Gavin, not even you needs to be told what to think, you’re more than capable of doing that yourself. Don’t worry, mankind will be okay.
So you’re unhappy about some Trump stories? If you really think about it, it says more about ye than Trump or Hillary.
Sexism, racism, segregation, locker room bantz, pure conjecture, childishness, unwitting incoherence, big gigantic off blonde ginger mullet, narrow distance between eyes, very strange semi- special repeated use of same hand gesture while attempting public “speaking”… wow. I can go on all night. Sure, CNN is all to blame!
You do realise they can report on that stuff about trump and (brace yourself) give fair airtime to Hillary’s misdeeds? Yes! That is journalism! If me being critical of the media says a lot about me, good! Now saying you think the media know better for mankind, and by media you mean a handful of very, very rich people, says a lot about you and Gavin, its not good.
Hilarious that you are so one side of the fence. It’s human nature. Pick a team and go for it hey. I’m not going to tell you the obvious. But once this is said and done, you need to be able to stand over your conscious decision to back the VALUES of Trump. Good luck with that.
Glad Hillary was such a pillar of humanity, miraculously untainted by controversy. F*** you Cianan, had the opportunity to write a balanced article and didn’t.
….and this is exactly the result of being unable to think for yourself.
You read my comments about the media and you lazily assume I support Trump . I don’t support either but I firmly believe both sides, and the public deserve fair, unbiased media coverage.
THAT is how you think for yourself.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday night Gavin
Dear Journal..Can you please tell me why you are not covering the wikileaks story? I hope Trump wins
That was an art exhibition in world renowned artist Marina Abramovic’s house displaying the works from her 1996 series of etchings called ‘Spirit Cooking’,I can’t believe you think an art expo is the same thing as drinking menstrual blood and semen!! I don’t know what type of art exhibitions you go to Eddie,you must be into some freaky s**t!!
Consuming semen and menstrual blood is not an art form. Marina Abramovic is a satanist and Podesta is a total freak.
They’re a collection of sketches you moron.
@Tariq ibn Ziyad: Tariq for that ‘sin’ alone she would be executed in many Islamic countries for sorcery.
Accusations of occult practices and rumours of satanic rituals have dogged the elite for decades now. Abramovic mixes freely within those elite circles. And the latest wikileaks revelations reveal there is some substance to those rumours.
Even more serious and sinister are Hillary’s documented links with a child smuggling ring.
Simple, fruit of the poisonous tree
@Eddie Simon: Podesta AKA Jeddihead! Ought be locked up somewhere and will be when Donald Trump takes office.
Hi Patrick are fbi rigged again now?
Let me guess gabby, he’s a man of integrity again who shouldn’t be questioned again?
No robert his position is untenable.
I agree. His position is untenable. All the misinformation leaking from the FBI in the last week shows he has lost the run of the place. I’d love to hear more from Giuliani about his current agent and source, you know, the one that tipped him off two weeks ago.
Theirs has to be the most ridiculous convoluted electoral process in the world. Thank god it’s nearly over
Keep on trucking Donald, nearly there..The White House awaits.
No new evidence in emails.. how you like them apples?
Gabby it should actually untenable for both sides. If actual evidence should turn up and I mean emails where Clinton flat out says that she knows she’s breaking the law there’s no way he can come out again saying their investigating and be taken seriously. He has no option but to resign.
Julian Assange says it all in this rather excellent interview. Well worth watching. https://youtu.be/_sbT3_9dJY4
Yes….Trump will never be ‘allowed’ to win. Hillary was selected a long time ago and regardless of what people know or want, she’s the next POTUS.
What a skumbag mocking a disabled person. All the Trumplodytes will be along now to complain that this article is mean about Papa Twumpy. Get over it and head off to Stormfront.org if you don’t want your boyfriend to be slagged for the dumb s**t he did and said himself.
Tariq this is why more and more people are turning away from the liberal ideology. You act all saintly and outraged whenever trump says or does something you don’t agree with and then call him a dumb s**t. People are tired of the lefts hypocrisy
Have a Kleenex Robert.
@Guru; Tariq is allegedly an athiest, he just set an account up to masquerade as a Muslim online.
What’s an athiest?
@Tariq ibn Ziyad:
Someone who doesn’t worship a dead paedophile and terrorist.
Jesus was a revolutionary rather than a terrorist I would have thought.
Jésus Guevara
You tell me Liam. You’re the one with the “masters in History” as you told the board here a while ago. It’s as believable as you being from Bradford innit.
Why would a historian study a fictional character?
Dain is a bit damaged,gets reality and fantasy a bit mixed up from time to time,had to get a restraining order against him.
@Tariq ibn Ziyad: Wow you really just outed your agenda in that comment! You really are a pig!!!
On March 17th, 2016 Trump forced himself on a hot looking corned beef sandwich. Might have been a bit of tongue action too. Disgusting man. Pervert. Then he claims the sandwich was asking for it. There hasn’t been a predator like this in the White House since Kennedy.
Trump is like a cartoon character, a U.S. version of Spitting Image.
Some take Trump seriously. I think that he is just a comic, an unsubtle and farcical comic, but a comic nonetheless.
You gotta admit there’s nothing funnier than Trump supporters getting wound up though. Especially about a minor online publication with about as much influence over the election as Thelma Mansfield being biased. For gods sake they’re even accusing people of Satanism…they’re straight out of the freaking loony bin…
The problem with the Alt-Right loonies is they believe EVERYTHING they read on the amateur conspiracy theory blogs they visit,not understanding that blogs can write absolutely anything they like without scrutiny or sources. The Alt-Right are probably the most gullible collective society has seen in decades,hoovering up made up stories about satanic rituals is just a new low,but they will sink far lower in their rabid fantasies purely based on their lack of intelligence and gullibility. You can even see in their comments that they have extreme difficulty with basic spelling and sentence formulation,their small brains are fertile ground for conspiracy theories,highly entertaining though.
@Tariq ibn Ziyad: Oh no!
Wikileaks is hardly an ‘alt-right’ blog though, is it?
What is wikileaks? Really? What do we know? So far they’ve gone all tabloid by taking every email out of context
@Francis,that’s that so! The game is up for Trump now, the far-right put all their stock in those emails and now the FBI have dropped the investigation,Hillary is home and dry now.
Tariq, I don’t know what’s actually more worrying. The fact they think an artists work is Satanism or the fact they believe in Satan in the first place. Wonder do they also believe that Jesus shows up in tacos ?Anyway, over $100 million dollars has been spent investigating Clinton and yet again no evidence of criminality has been found. Back to the drawing board.
Satanists are a harmless bunch anyway,it’s the people who follow Jesus you need to be wary off,especially their clergy.
Tariq, anyone who believes that any religion gives them the right to lord it over others needs to have a proper look at themselves but ffs Satanism ? The god of Abraham genocides the entire population of earth bar a few on a boat and he’s the good guy in their story, Satan offers someone a piece of fruit and he’s the bad guy ? People really need to pull their heads out of their asses.
Pretty biased. Where is Hillary’s hack job? And the picture on the link is shameful. This is not news! It’s an agenda!
I live in Chicago, (what a wild week, sports wise) and if Trump gets elected as Prez, I’m moving to Navan Ireland !! He is a total douche , and an embarrassment, which we don’t any more of.
Last ditch mainstream media attempt to promote their candidate.
There’s more truth in the comment sections than the features, media has changed and the people will make their own choice.
Nice to see an unbiased article about the US presidential race for a change. Well done The Journal.
Cry me a river.
@Tariq ibn Ziyad: You’re only a bloody troll with nothing better to do than spout sh!te.
Thanks for that pearl of wisdom Robbie,you just won the Internet,PMSL!
There’s that incontinence again Petr. You realise you’re logged in under the Tariq account right? Ya freak
It’s all gone very quiet since Comey admitted there’s nothing in the emails. Has the alt-right been the victim of a DoS attack?
‘Finally it will be all over”. It will only be the beginning no matter which nutter gets in!
I find Hillary more scary… https://www.rt.com/news/365405-assange-pilger-full-transcript/
@Alois Irlmaier: Probably because your a paranoid loon.
@Philip Gerard: No, I go by the facts and not let others tell me what to think as the media does so well today with little facts. Have you seen her emails?
A loon is better than rude and most of my comment are suppose to be comical, as what else can you do but cry at the craziness of situations fuelled by madness and greed in most cases?
So 3 years after Trump becomes president, if he becomes president, what will change in America and the world?
Trump’s businesses would be doing better
So what, Reagan stated he was visited by UFO’s twice and J.F. Kennedy had a STI that left him with constant back pain, Nixon use to go mad after mixing his tablets with alcohol wanting to launch nukes running around the White House screaming being as high as a kite…
This is a lie.
Trump mocks everyone with the same gestures. He wasnt mocking the disabled reporter in this case.
have your say