Storing Your Credit Card for One-Click Payments

When you make frequent online purchases from the same retailers, you might consider saving your credit card information for one-click payments. This lets you check out quickly and easily without having to enter your payment and billing information each time. Storing your credit card details is certainly convenient, but is it safe?

Just having a credit card puts you at risk of credit card fraud. The more places you've stored your credit card information, the greater your risk of having those financial details stolen. If a company suffers a data breach - something you can't control - your credit card information details may also be stolen.

Here's what you can do to be a little safer and enjoy the convenience of storing your payment information.

Use a credit card, not a debit card. Most credit cards come with zero fraud liability protection. The benefit keeps you from being liable for fraudulent purchases made on your credit card. You just have to report the unauthorized charges to your credit card issuer.

Debit cards generally do not have the same protection. Your liability is limited based on how long it takes you to report the fraudulent charges. However, you'll have to deal with your money missing from your bank account while you wait for the bank to investigate.

Check for how much information will be stored. Retailers that store everything except your credit card's CVV number are a little safer. You'll have to enter the three-digit security number from the back of your credit card when you're ready to make purchases, but this is more secure than if the security code was stored.

Be cautious about where you store your information. Even if you're storing your credit card information, be selective about the places that save your payment details. Major retailers will be more diligent about securing customer payment information. Make sure you look for the proper security details - "https://" in the URL and a site security license.

Use a mobile wallet instead. More online retailers offer mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay as checkout option. In this case, your payment information is securely stored on your mobile device rather than on the retailers cloud storage.

Protect your account details. Storing your payment information online means you'll have to be more protective over your login information. Use a secure password that includes a mix of characters with both upper- and lowercase letters. Choose secure answers to your security questions and don't post the answers in any of your online profiles.

Monitor your account frequently. If someone steals your credit card information or hacks into your account, you may not realize it for several days, or even weeks. The earlier you catch suspicious charges, the better. Check your credit card account often and report any suspicious charges to your credit card issuer quickly to have a new card number mailed to you.