Page Text: Finance
As a customer, you are pampered with a vast number of choices. E-commerce products are growing every day, and there are no signs of stopping. Retailers are proliferating, and goods shipment can reach almost anywhere in the world. But don’t let those good things fool you. If you are not careful, you may spend your money on services or goods you don’t need. Or worse, they may not get to you as expected, and your personal data may be at risk.
Therefore, you should note these four hacks down so that your online shopping experience is flawless.
Use VPN If You Use Public WiFi
You don’t have to be an IT expert these days to know that public WiFi access is not safe. A third party can easily hack through your computer because the connection is not encrypted. This is more well-known as the Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attack. If you are transacting, and there is a MITM hacker, they can steal your credit card data and use them for their own advantage.
To tackle that risk, you can opt for a VPN service. VPN encrypts your connection, and even a MITM hacker manages to access your connection, they won’t see what you’re actually doing on your computer. There are many VPN services online to choose from. But here are our picks: Nord VPN, Express VPN, IP Vanish, and Private Internet Access. They all have both free and premium accesses.
Use a Trusted Currency Conversion Service
The best thing about online shopping is that you can get stuff that is not available in your country. If it is a fashion good, then it can surely make you stand out of the crowd. And you probably know that Google also offers currency service as well. Let’s assume you are in Canada, and you want to buy some items from the US, you can just type, “ USD to CAD ,” on the search bar, and you’ll get to the conversion menu already. But that is not enough because the conversion rate is often only 80% accurate. It’d be better if you look at other conversion websites as well.
Pay Attention to the Return Terms
Reading about the shipment terms is probably one of the most boring things to do during shopping. But unlike the conventional purchase, you cannot go directly to the shop to return a defective product and confront the seller. Even if you can, it’d be a waste of time because what’s bought online usually has its own return policy. Therefore, don’t be lazy! Prepare a piece of paper to take notes of the important points in the return policy.
Investigate the Customer Reviews
Not all customer reviews are legit, especially if they are displayed on a sketchy website. You should trust reviews written on social media, Google rating, and Yelp, instead. If your purchase reaches $500 or more, you should try to connect to the shop’s former customer and see what they are going to say about their experience. Even if a retail shop is internally good, if they pick the wrong shipping service, your purchase will still be at risk. Therefore, don’t bother risking your money on low-quality service. …