Safe Online Shopping Thanks To ShopSafe From Bank Of America Visa...

If you have a Bank ofAmerica Visa credit card I hope you give ShopSafe a try. I have been using the ShopSafe system for online and phone purchases for some time now and I love how simple and worry-free it is to use.

This is how I found ShopSafe:
One day, while checking on our Bank of America online Visa charges I noticed on the page I was looking at that BofA was offering something new that they were calling ShopSafe. I clicked the ShopSafe online address that I saw on my online Visa charge page, and I was directed to the ShopSafe page.

Here's how easy ShopSafe is to use:
I quickly learned that I could assign an amount of money to a 'surrogate' credit card number and use the 'new' number to make a purchase either online or over the phone. If something were to happen to the database at the merchant's online store, where my 'surrogate' credit card number was stored, no one could use my credit card number because it had already been used by the merchant where I made my purchase. Each ShopSafe number becomes a 'dedicated' Visa credit card number that can be used by only the first merchant that enters it into the Visa database.

In addition to this safeguard, the amount of money that I assigned to the credit card number can not be changed by anyone, not even the merchant. The only person who has control over the ShopSafe number, and the amount of money that is assigned to the ShopSafe Visa number is the owner of the original Visa credit card number.

Example: Say I assign three hundred dollars ($300.00) to a ShopSafe number, and I spend two hundred and twenty of those dollars ($220.00) on a purchase that leaves eighty dollars ($80.00) in the number that has not been used. I can go back to the same merchant and charge the remaining money on another purchase but I cannot use the remaining money to make another purchase with a different merchant. To make a charge with a different merchant I have to get another surrogate Visa number for the new merchant, and assign whatever amount of money that I need to the new number. Numbers have a 'shelf life' that the owner of the Visa assigns to them. I usually get six (6) months assigned to each number that I take out at the ShopSafe online page.

How it works for the merchant:
When the merchant calls in to Visa with the number you give him or her for your purchase it goes into a database, and the charge is re-routed by the bank to your 'real' Visa credit card number. The next day you should be able to go online to look at your Visa credit card charges, and see the charge from the merchant who used your 'surrogate' ShopSafe Visa credit card number to make the purchase at his or her online store. It's as simple as that! You never have to tell the merchant that you are using ShopSafe.

I don't know why Bank of America is not advertising ShopSafe. I know others that use the ShopSafe system for online and phone purchases, and they love it as much as I do.

Of course when I purchase goods in person at a store I use my regular Visa credit card instead of ShopSafe.

Carol Garnier Dutra

Copyright © 2010 by Carol Garnier Dutra
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