Money transfers are no longer just for businesses and individuals have the need to transfer money to other people regularly. This may be to pay for goods or maybe just sending a gift to some-one.
Gone are the days of wrapping cash in a few sheets of paper to try and disguise it, slipping it in the mail and then hoping it reaches its destination without getting lost. Life is a lot more simple these days and you can transfer funds to other people almost instantly. In the case of some services like PayPal or Skrill, depending on the funding source, it can be as fast as sending an email.
You may need to transfer money for any number of reasons such as:
- paying for goods bought at an online store
- sending a gift to a friend or family member
- paying a bill such as your electricity account
- paying for goods bought at an online auction such as ebay
- paying for concert tickets
- and many other reasons…
Security of Money Transfers
In addition to the speed of money transfers these days, there is also a security benefit. Provided you take precautions such as keeping anti-virus software up to date, only shopping at reputable online stores, using your bank website to process payments if in doubt and keeping your account details secure, completing payments online is beneficial. If you are in any doubt then you can always use a third party payments provider such as PayPal. If you are still not one hundred percent comfortable then perhaps money orders or bank drafts are best for you. Just be aware then some places might not be set up to accept these and if buying goods, the delivery will be delayed as they won’t release the items for shipping until they have the cleared funds in their bank account. This can take up to a couple of weeks by the time you factor in postage and clearance times. If time isn’t an issue then by all means do this. Just remember to keep a copy of the details in case something happens with the mail system and your payment goes missing. Yo need to be able to cancel it and try again.
Overall, online payments are becoming more and more safe and if you read between the lines in many of the media articles about people getting ripped off with online payments, often it is a result of the person not understanding the system properly or being careless with their details which can happen offline just as easily as online. People need to understand that even though they might not have cash in the pocket, their credit card is just as valuable and should be treated that way.