Digital technology never stops amusing us and you must have seen how revolutions taking place in the field of digital payments have made your lives easier. But everything comes up with its share of cons. When security is compromised in case of digital payments, the chances of cybercrime increase.

Falling prey to cybercrime and losing hard-earned money is a nightmare! Safety must become very important when you make official payments online or else you could end up losing your money. In this article, we are going to tell you how you can make official payments safely.

Here is what you will find in this article:

1. Ways to Make Official Payments Safely
2. Precautions You Must Take for Official Payments

Let’s get started.

Ways to Make Official Payments Safely

Not every payment platform that you come across is safe. Even if any platform offers you lucrative deals for making official payments through their portal consider whether it is safe or not. Here are some modes you can opt to for making official payments safely:

Debit Cards

Making official payments through a debit card is cost-effective and safe. The amounts that you utilize for carrying out official payments are deducted directly through the bank account linked to your card.

The advantage with debit cards is that most of the banks provide zero liability protection to its debit cardholders which means that in case any fraudulent activity is detected on your card, you need not pay for the same and thus, your funds remain protected. Further, you might have noticed how sometimes your card issuer company gives you a call regarding a transaction from your card which they find “suspicious”. This is another reason why debit cards are safe because the card issuers provide strong fraud monitoring services to minimize the chances of fraud on your card.

Credit Cards

Credit cards are not only convenient to use but also a safe medium for making official payments. They are not directly linked to your bank account unlike debit cards and the money that you utilize through your card is deducted from your card limit and an immediate deduction is not made from the bank account. Instead, it is a pay later service which means that your bank sends you a periodic credit card statement for the payment after you have made the payments through your card.

The reason that credit cards are safe is that they are backed up by a strong security feature. Also, in case you have made a wrong transaction for your official payments, you can contact the card issuer and request a reversal.

Wire Transfers

To ensure funds are received in the correct account some organizations make use of wire transfers to receive payments. Wire transfer payments involve a transfer of the funds electronically through a network of financial institutions. If you want to make official payments via a wire transfer then you can request your bank i.e. remitting bank to make the payment to the account of the recipient organization. The remitting bank would require you to furnish certain details such as name, bank account number of the recipient, and amount to be transferred.

The wire transfers ensure that the payment is transmitted to the bank account of the desired recipient and thus, it becomes a very safe option to make official payments. You need not worry about cyber frauds on account of wire transfers since banks remit the amount as per the details that you provide to them.

Alternative Payment Services

You might have heard of at least one of these payment methods namely Paypal, Skrill, Google Wallet, Payoneer, Wepay, and so on. All these are third-party payment services and they are known as alternative payment services since they serve as an alternative to credit and debit cards. Each of such services has its unique application through which the payment gets transferred.

These payment alternatives are safe since the service providers don’t ask for any personal information apart from email id. Thus, you can make your official payments through them without sharing any personal details.

Unified Payment Interface (UPI)

This is a very popular method for making any digital payment and not just official payments. The UPI interface allows you to make payments to the receiver’s bank account without requiring you to share your debit or credit card details. Sounds an easy and safe way, right!

Precautions You Must Take for Official Payments

Credit Cards

When making official payments through a credit card, make sure that the website that you transact through is secure. The best way to ensure that the website is secure is to run a check on VPN review sites to arrive at the best VPN to deploy while searching through such websites.

There are some other features that you can check to ensure that the website is safe. This includes checking for the letters “https:” and not “http:” in the URL of the website and ensuring the presence of a small padlock image which is found at the top left-hand side. Further, if you feel that any suspicious transaction has taken place through your credit card which you haven’t carried out then make sure that you notify the same to your credit card company so that they can block your card and help you with the matter.

Debit Cards

Your debit card shall have the feature of one-time-passwords, known as OTP, instead of a simple transaction password. This helps you prevent any fraud on your transaction since you need OTPs to complete the transactions. The passwords are usually sent by the card companies through a mail or mobile SMS. If this option is not yet available on your debit cards consider connecting with your card issuer to make necessary changes to your transaction options.

Here is another tip when it comes to debit cards. There are prepaid debit cards that you can use for making official payments. This way only a certain amount is in use and the rest remains safe in your bank account. Also, no matter how convenient it may seem, do not save your card details on any digital platform.

Wire Transfer

Wire transfers are a very safe option and hence you need to only ensure that the organization to whom you need to make official payments provides you their correct account details otherwise the payment can fail. You would then require to get the payment done again after getting the correct bank details which can get cumbersome.

Alternative Payment Services

As we have stated earlier, alternative payment services do not require you to share your personal details. So if you use any platform make sure the platform doesn’t require you to share your personal details regarding debit or credit cards or otherwise. Also, don’t share your login credentials with others.

UPI

Just like alternative payment services, UPI platforms don’t require you to share any card details with either the bank or the third party. You should restrict yourselves from sharing any sensitive banking data with anyone.

Conclusion

Taking precautions can help you save yourself from the financial loss and the stress that you might face if your cybersecurity is compromised and fraud occurs. Don’t let anyone hamper cybersecurity and make sure that you make official payments through trusted sources only.