Hacking Bought something online not using paypal?

[Fondue]

I was wondering about how much trust you all have with these companies. Not in regards to their support/delivering, etc, but more along the lines of them stealing your credit card.

In my case, I am about to make a purchase from realhotstuff.com, and was wondering if it was "safe" to order through them by credit card, or if I should take it through paypal.

A lot of these sites look "sketchy." I have heard realhotstuff.com being praised, but when I look at their inventory and see them selling beads and flashing pens, it just seems, "unprofessional." Going through the inventory of other sites as well, I see the same sort of thing.

Your thoughts?


(And specifically, for those who have purchased from realhotstuff.com, did you pay by credit card or run through paypal?)


Thanks


EDIT: And note that I am not trying to bash these companies. I just wanted to see some opinions on the subject.

 

[nintendofreak]

I know what you mean, giving your card number to some company that youve never even heard of, and who hardley has a contact number or address. But i think just about every single credit card/ bank card company has some sort of "money back gaurantee"/ protection from unauthorized use.

id wait for personal opinion from a member about that company, before buying tho

 

[kohkindachi]

It's ok if you're afraid of directly using CC/DC for payment, same with me

. But if you think the privacy and security of Paypal is questionable....then nthing can help

Paypal isn't there for nothing, signup is free, except there's some limit.

I always use PP, after adding CC, you can easily remove it again.

 

[Battalia]

I bought from RealHotStuff.com and used a credit card and have had no problems. They're located in the US, so I would be pretty confident that they're OK. Companies located outside the US are probably the ones you need to worry about.

 

[Fondue]

Awesome, this is the kind of stuff I want to hear. =)

 

[dOoBiX]

Yes, realhotstuff.com is a good site. I bought my supercard and superkey from there.

 

[megabug7]

I bought from RealHotStuff.com and used a credit card and have had no problems. They're located in the US, so I would be pretty confident that they're OK. Companies located outside the US are probably the ones you need to worry about.

Bit biased aren't we...?

 

[Kurumi]

I bought from RealHotStuff.com and used a credit card and have had no problems. They're located in the US, so I would be pretty confident that they're OK. Companies located outside the US are probably the ones you need to worry about.


Bit biased aren't we...?

Biased... Or plain racist ?

All i see is lots of fail and paranoia for that poor soul.

 

[richardv]

RealHotStuff is very reliable and trustworthy.
I have bought from them several times and I highly reccomend them.

 

[CatScam]

I’ve gata agree with all above, I bought from RealHotStuff.com with my CC
& they were fast & inexpensive. All though for future note, Pay Pal is not your
friend when it comes to any type of problems. They have been sued so many
times I can’t count, unlike a credit card company that automatically is on your
side unless shown other wise. Pay Pal believes nothing you say & makes little
to no effort to resolve problems, other then sending some emails.

 

[nunofgs]

My bank has a great service for those cases. It's called MBNet.
It allows you to create "temporary" VISA cards that only contain the amount you specified.

It's cool because the card only allows one transaction and expires after that (or one month). If there is any money leftover it is returned to your account as soons as the credit card expires. Really great service.

PS: Paypal doesn't like it though... they limited my account for registering too many credit cards

 

[fischju_original]

i bought my SC CF from realhotstuff.com with paypal, at the time i did that they didnt even have encryption for credit cards

 

[outphase]

I bought from RealHotStuff.com and used a credit card and have had no problems. They're located in the US, so I would be pretty confident that they're OK. Companies located outside the US are probably the ones you need to worry about.


Bit biased aren't we...?

Biased... Or plain racist ?

All i see is lots of fail and paranoia for that poor soul.

Let's just give him the benefit of the doubt in meaning outside of US shipping to US, as this tends to be harder to do anything if something bad comes up... i think...

 

[Battalia]

Thank you Outphase, that was exactly my point. Those other idiotic responses leave me speechless.

 

[forkyfork]

My bank has a great service for those cases. It's called MBNet.
It allows you to create "temporary" VISA cards that only contain the amount you specified.

It's cool because the card only allows one transaction and expires after that (or one month). If there is any money leftover it is returned to your account as soons as the credit card expires. Really great service.

PS: Paypal doesn't like it though... they limited my account for registering too many credit cards

Citicard has something even better

A randomly generated credit card number that links to your account. It expires after one use. Great for "Sketchy" companies that I've dealt with over the past.

 

[KidIce]

Things to think about for general credit card use:

1) ANY time you use your credit/debit debit you risk it being misused, whether at a local shop, over the phone or over the net. All you can rely on is the employee handling your card or number, his/her manager, etc are honest people. It has little to do w/ the sketchyness of the business, unless of course the business was in the habit of theft via their customers credit cards.

2) You are not liable for unauthorized credit/debit card use involving only the card number. If your card is lost or stolen you are not liable for any unauthorized use that occurs after you have reported it stolen. If there is unauthorized use before you report it stolen the maximum amount you can be held liable for is $50. This is the law in the USA anyway. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/atmcard.htm

3) The banks/card companies are not in the habit of allowing companies that abuse credit card information to continue to do so. At the minimum they will pull their ability to accept credit cards as payment, harsher things would be more likely. That's something which makes me more leary of those sites that only accept Paypal and do not handle the card transaction themselves. How many businesses have you been in lately that will not take a card?

Things to think about in the case of RealHotStuff:

1) RealHotStuff has been around awhile, if they were misusing card info at best they couldn't take your card as payment and worst (for them anyway) wouldn't be in business anymore.

2) I've actually found it significantly easier and quicker to get my money back in situations that called for it (non-delivery of product, etc) from my bank/card companies then from Paypal. Sorry, Paypal isn't the consumer's champion some people think they are.

3) My local Safeway/Vons sells crap flashing pens and cheap beads (and other poor excuses for toys) somewhere in between the magazines and the school supplies. Does this make them a sketchy grocery store chain?

That being said, if you're that worried about your card being misused then you just shouldn't use them at all on the net or otherwise. And for the love of god do not write "See ID" where your signature should be, sign it like the issuer tells you to do. It's in the issuers best interest to keep your card seccure, and they've spent a lot of money coming up w/ ways to keep it that way, don't you think they know a little more about card security then whatever fool who told you to do that does? Unsigned cards are invalid for a reason, and "See ID" is not your signature. And what is this? Did you seriously write your PIN on your freakin' ATM card?!? And... Erm... Uhm...

Sorry... Guess who worked for a bank.

 

[iza]

i ordered from realhotstuff....no problems at all..the only thing i can even complain about was the site said it was in stock (but only a few left) and an hour or so later the guy emailed me asking if i would take a superkey instead of a passcard. so i give them 4.99999/5

 

[Fondue]

This thread has some good information in it. (Especially about the paypal issues.)

On an aside:

Just to let everyone know, realhotstuff was great. Support tickets were answered within 15minutes to 1 hour. Shipped in 3 or 4 days. (I ordered saturday night, sunday mail is dead, shipped monday I believe, received thursday.

Box was slightly crunched, but everything inside was fine. They were great to work with, I highly recommend them.

 

[WangJang]

I also ordered from there using my cc, not a problem and its been over a month, they shipped very fast and i have 0 complaints.

About the companies outside of the us, i feel a lot safer using companies within the united states as i have a better chance of getting something done, i certainly wouldn't shop at sites that's run from hong kong etc, not cause i am racist but because if something does happen i have a bigger chance of nothing getting resolved.