I have used net banking for payments on a few local Indian sites a few times and it seemed like a fairly safe method to me. What is your opinion of directly tranferring money as means of paying for things? I personally use this method only because Paypal doesn't allow Indian users to keep their money in their accounts and it is automatically transferred to our bank accounts after a while. So, is it safe for buying stuff from international sellers or is using credit cards the safer option?
Most sellers have several payment options you could use. If you can pay with paypal I would recommend using that because some shady sellers will charge your credit card more than once as long as they have your credit card number. There was a friend of mine who signed up for to try out some online service [filled out his credit card number etc, etc]. At the end of the trial period he canceled the subscription but got charged the full price anyway. Twice. Maybe online banking is safer but still the risk is once you've paid for a product even if its defective there's no way you're going to be reimbursed.
I agree with Denis Hard. You have got to be careful when giving you out your credit card details online. I think that Paypal is a very safe and effective way to purchase items online because you can always file a dispute, and you will be refunded your money. If you use a credit card, you obviously in most cases don't have this option.
In the Philippines, although that is possible, it is not a popular method of paying for your online shopping. I must say that Paypal is also one of the safest (if not THE safest) ways to pay online. With its strict security measures, you can put your mind at ease. But yeah, Paypal could be compromised as well especially if you do not take care of your own account.
I am an Indian too, and I have done online shopping very frequently over the last 5 years or more. I prefer to use ebay.in and, lately, snapdeal.com for shopping. Ebay.in is a very safe site for me to shop on. I have used net banking almost 95% times on it to pay for the items I buy, and not even once have I experienced any problem with net banking. I have also used the debit card payment method as well, but it's always net banking that gives me a feeling of safety while doing transaction online and on ebay.in. As a matter of fact, I used net banking on snapdeal.com yesterday again. Also, due to code verification on your mobile phone before actually paying is involved while using net banking, it has reduced any chance of loss of money during the money transaction.
