Is It Safe To Email Credit Card Details?
Everything you need to know about keeping your card details safe online.
You have just sent a customer an invoice that includes your bank details over email or you have sent the details to a friend that owes you money – only to find out that this might not be a safe thing to do.
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Are emails safe enough to share sensitive information like your bank details in? If not, are there any alternatives? And what should you do if your information is stolen online?
Well, we have the answers to all of those questions here for you today.
Your credit card information can include any of the following things:
- The name that is on your card
- The address that your card is registered to (postcode included)
- The long number on your card (this will be unique to your credit card)
- The account number or sort code that is on the front of your card (these a linked to the bank account your credit card is connected to)
- The name of the bank that you have your card with
- The starting and expiration dates of your credit card (can be found on the front of the card and will only include the month and the year, i.e mm/yy)
- The CVV code on the back of your card (this is a 3 number code)
Why Would You Need To Send Your Credit Card Details To Someone Over Email?
There are many reasons.
A friend or family member may owe you money and want to pay it directly into your bank account. Or a friend or family member may want to send you a monetary gift. You may want a customer to pay what they own you directly into your credit card bank account.
Any of the above reasons and many more could cause you to send your credit card details via email – but is it safe?
Is It Safe To Send Your Credit Card Information Via Email?
You may be asking this question because you have heard about the recent series of hacks that happened at Yahoo – that lead to hundreds of thousands of email accounts being hacked. This is such a simple question, however, there is a huge amount of disagreement amongst the experts.
The answer to this question betweens on how much security you have on your email account and which company you have your email account with.
The best email accounts to have are with Apple and Google (@me.com or @gmail.com). One of the benefits of using the services of a really big company like Google or Apple is that they have a lot of money to spend on security and don’t cut corners to save cash. These companies have the best encryption on their servers.
However, we would recommend using other methods to send your bank account information to people. Or you should take the time to make sure that your emails are protected.
There are a lot of safer alternatives to sending details over email that exist in 2022 – we wouldn’t recommend taking the risk when you don’t have to.
How Can You Protect Your Email Account?
While there are safer alternatives to sending details via email these days, making your emails harder to hack is never a waste of time. This will help to keep all your details and online accounts safer.
Here are three things you can do to improve the safety of your email account:
#1 – Secure Your Password
You want to make sure that you do not repeat your email password with any other account. For example, if your Prime password and your email password are the same, if one of them is hacked, both are compromised.
Your email should have a unique password. This password should not contain any real words, at least 2 numbers, a symbol and be longer than 10 characters.
#2 – Two-Factor Authentication
Every email provider will allow you to set up two-factor authentication – using your phone or another email address.
This means that if someone wants to log into your email account then they will have to have access to your phone or the second email account to do so.
When you try to log into your email account, you will be sent a code via text or email. You will not be able to log in until you have entered the code. The code will be different every time.
#3 – Get Third Party Protection
If you are using an advanced browser like Chrome, you will be able to get password protection extensions.
These extensions will allow you to store your passwords safely and will prevent you from having them automatically pop up if someone is logged into your browser account.
What Are The Alternatives To Using Email To Send Your Credit Card Information?
We mentioned earlier in the article that, with technological advancements, there is no longer a need to risk sending your bank details over email.
So, what are the alternatives to doing this? Well, here are our two most recommended methods.
Online Banking Apps
Nearly every bank now offers an online banking app. These apps can be very useful because they can allow us to transfer money and check our balances from our phones.
What they can also allow us to do is send people encrypted links to our details via our contacts list.
For example, if your brother needs to send you money, you can go into your app, find him on your list of contacts and send him a link. This link will take him to his own banking app and allow him to transfer money straight into your account.
Online Payment Services
Our other recommendation is that you use a service like Google Pay or PayPal.
These are online wallets that allow you to transfer money without needing to share any bank account details. The money will be temporarily held in the online wallet before entering your bank account. If your PayPal is hacked they cannot gain access to your bank account or any of your money.
Read this guide on how to mail a credit card.
