Thursday, April 20, 2017

We Don't Shop on Internet, So are We Unnecessarily Paranoid?

money
every penny counts
Sometimes I think that my husband and I are the very last people to resist shopping on the internet via our phones and computers. I haven't even paid for the "extra reliable antivirus" that cost money. There are two basic reasons I haven't started.

  1. I just don't trust the security, since anyone can access via phone, computer, hacking etc.
  2. It's just too easy to buy things you don't need or you never would have bought if you had seen it f2f.
When I was at the bank recently, I asked the young "banker clerk" if she thought I was a bit crazy in refusing to use our credit card on the computer. She insisted that I was, "because it's all insured," she insisted. I had been wondering if it's possible to get an additional card with limited usage, meaning we'd have to periodically add money to it, and it would be impossible to allow it the accepted Israeli "overdraft" and subsequent fines-interest charges. The clerk pooh poohed that idea. Maybe because she's trained to help the bank make more money, like from interest and overdrafts.

Another reason I haven't really wanted to shop online is that I prefer dealing with real people. That's one of the reasons I did so well as a saleswoman in Yafiz for all those years. 

I also asked on facebook, which is such a helpful open forum at times like this. People did say that you can report unauthorized use of your credit card, but then you do have to prove that it wasn't you. And according to a friend, to do that quickly enough you must set up your account so that you get immediate notifications.

Finally on facebook a couple of people told me that we can buy special credit cards from the post office in which we fill it with a specific amount of money, and it can be recharged when empty. Those sound just like what I had envisioned. The only problem is to get to a post office when it's open and when I have time to go in.

What do you think?

3 comments:

Shelly said...

I think it is totally dependent on you. A person walking around town also has to choose whether to give in to impulse buying or purchase only what they planned on purchasing and need. I can tell you that if you are careful to purchase just what you actually need, you can save money and effort by purchasing it online - I've found I can purchase things online for much better prices than I usually find in physical stores - including cost of shipping, both within Israel and abroad.

Rickismom said...

I use a prepaid bank card. My brother uses a separate credit card. If he needs to make a purchase online for X amount, he ģives an online order to his bank to transfer X amount to the card.
I use online only rarely , but there ARE things I just can't find locally.

Batya said...

Shelly we aren't big shoppers.
RM I just got a card. No shopping list