How to use online payment services

What is a third-party payment service?

When you use a third-party payment service, you transfer money into an online account and make payments from that account. That way, you never expose your real credit card or bank account information. The most popular of these services in the U.S. is called PayPal, but there are others such as Amazon.com Payments. You can use these third-party payment services to:

• Make purchases on online auction sites.
• Purchase products from an online business.
• Donate money to different causes.

How to choose a secure payment service

Use the same guidelines for choosing a third-party payment service as you would for choosing an online retailer.

• Make sure the business is legitimate.
• Find out what others say about the service: Check consumer review sites such as Epinions.com or BizRate.
• Find out whether the seller is a verified member of the payment service, and for how long. Some services also allow you to check the seller's rating—although these ratings cannot be guaranteed, they can be helpful.
• Look at the payment service's Web site for seals of approval from Truste or Better Business Bureau Online — (BBBOnline).
• Make sure the site user encryption technology to help protect your data.

Use payment services more safely

Never respond to e-mail messages from third-party payment services asking you to confirm account details, such as passwords or other personally identifiable information. These e-mail messages could be an identity theft scam, such as phishing.