WU vs Visa?

[dokstar]

Hi people, I’m not an very good expert in this so I would like you to ask: is there somebody who has some professional opinions on which is the “safest bet” on getting your money back in that case if you are being scammed?

 

I’m not sure but in my opinion Visa can be a little bit risky due to the fact that I don’t really want to give out my card information to everybody out there, that’s the way how an account is getting drained out of money completely, am I right? or that’s only a false statement?

 

[McBrien]

First off you need to remember that you should never give your credit card or debit card number to anybody else! Absolutely any site that you are ordering from (doesn’t matter what – anything at all) they should all have some sort of an online payment processor and I guess I should not mention that the payment page needs to be SSL secured. This is the first thing that you should check for.

 

So, having this said the credit card or/and debit cards are still safer than WU (Western Union). At the very least, with a credit card or/and debit card you are able to start a dispute with your card issuer or bank in the case you have got scammed. In such case you are having at least some chances that you are going to get your money back. I don’t know why you don’t know it but as soon as you are sending the money through a service similar to Western Union or through Western Union itself, you should know that the money are already gone and there is nothing that you can do about that or a way to get them back (unless the person to whom you have send the money send them back to you – but as you can understand, chances of that to happen are none).

 

A recommendation for you – in case you are intending to use Western Union services (or any other service similar to WU) in order to make a payment then please be very careful because you need to be sure and be comfortable with the person or with the company that you are trying to send your money to. I personally use WU too, but only with my family members or friends or people I know. Never use it with companies that I am not familiar with and I also don’t trust those companies who don’t accept any other payment methods than WU. That’s a red flag that they are scammers. Each time I ask them how they guarantee me safeness they tell: we’re based on trust. Often people who tell you that are the ones who scam you.

 

Hope this information would be helpful for you. I wish you all the best.

 

[dokstar]

</p><p>First off you need to remember that you should never give your credit card or debit card number to anybody else! Absolutely any site that you are ordering from (doesn’t matter what – anything at all) they should all have some sort of an online payment processor and I guess I should not mention that the payment page needs to be SSL secured. This is the first thing that you should check for.</p><p> </p><p>So, having this said the credit card or/and debit cards are still safer than WU (Western Union). At the very least, with a credit card or/and debit card you are able to start a dispute with your card issuer or bank in the case you have got scammed. In such case you are having at least some chances that you are going to get your money back. I don’t know why you don’t know it but as soon as you are sending the money through a service similar to Western Union or through Western Union itself, you should know that the money are already gone and there is nothing that you can do about that or a way to get them back (unless the person to whom you have send the money send them back to you – but as you can understand, chances of that to happen are none).</p><p> </p><p>A recommendation for you – in case you are intending to use Western Union services (or any other service similar to WU) in order to make a payment then please be very careful because you need to be sure and be comfortable with the person or with the company that you are trying to send your money to. I personally use WU too, but only with my family members or friends or people I know. Never use it with companies that I am not familiar with and I also don’t trust those companies who don’t accept any other payment methods than WU. That’s a red flag that they are scammers. Each time I ask them how they guarantee me safeness they tell: we’re based on trust. Often people who tell you that are the ones who scam you.</p><p> </p><p>Hope this information would be helpful for you. I wish you all the best.</p><p>

</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Hey there, thanks for your answer. I also wanted to ask you (becuz it seem to me that you know a little about all this). is it going to work in case I would just went and got a Pre paid visa card so in this way they would not have any information about my bank acc? I do understand that there is a risk about having my money scammed but honestly I am even more worried if there would be an scam artist that would have access to all of my money. so I think that using a pre paid card they would only have access to a small amount of money, is it true? Does this make some sense to you?? with time I am going to learn how to avoid scammers, but as for now I wouldn’t want all my money to disappear. I’ve heard that there were such cases and I wouldn’t like to be one of those who loses their money.</p>

 

[McBrien]

So well… a prepaid card might really work. It is mostly depending on the issuer of the card. I know that there are some of the prepaid card that are only allowing domestic transactions so you should pay attention to this too in case you’re planning ordering from overseas. In case you are planning to use it in order to make some international purchases then I assume that you should call the one who issued you the card and then to ask him or her if that is allowed and if it’s not then what you can do about that.
And yeah, what are you saying up there is making just perfect sense, don’t worry. And I agree with you, better to be on the safe side, I also know about scam artists that are draining your bank account completely. We should all be making sure that we’re not dealing with such a person.

 

[Seemorger90]

Hi people. I am now thinking whether there is or there is not a difference in the fraud protection that it is built in to those 2 types of the cards, I am talking about the prepaid vs revolving. I do know that there are a lot of standard CCs that are having a limit of a $50 on fraud and pretty often, the bank is going to absorb the whole it in case they are able to do a chargeback. Having that said, I’m not so worried about a fraudulent charge of about $ 300 or let it be $ 500 from a shady merchant or someone like that due to the fact that at the most I am going to lose no more than $50. However, with a prepaid card, unless there are similar protection in the place then a shady merchant (or whoever like that) can easily charge the whole amount of $ 300 or $ 500 or whatever other value is from the prepaird card so after that I am completely out of my entire amount of money, am i? I’m not sure if what I am saying here is necessary true, however in case this is so, then I would really rather chose the standard CC for not being scammed by more than $50.

 

Is there somebody who really knows the whole truth of the fraud protection with these prepaid CCs?? I would really like to know more about all this. thanks a lot. 

 

[RichardP]

There are about 99 % of all the prepaid card that you are going to pick up at the corner stare that are NOT going to work for the international transactions. I know that from my own experience.

 

For example, my regular mastercard bank (Chase) is pretty often turning down the international transactions I am trying to make. They are not doing it in case I am letting them know in advance that I am going to use it in some other places too. I did not know this in the past but I have found out when I was traveling through Canada so I wanted to buy some gasoline when I was rejected.

 

For you to know, there are some international prepaid “traveler’s cards” that are issued by Mastercard and Visa. I know that the AAA in the US are having them. However, IRRC many (or maybe most of them) are requiring SSN etc. or I can be wrong?

 

Anyway, in case your town is having a Mercado where a lot of migrants are shopping there then you might try it there.

 

Anyway, luckily the IOP I have use took Pay Pal.

 

[marshal]

I personally prefer more money gram only because of the ease. Western Union seem to got so strict lately. At least for me. that is why they are pissing me off pretty bad. I have had my credit card/ debit card account drained a lot of times so it is messing up my credit because of the automatic payment that is coming out. I have been out of the country when somebody has started off with $ 2.00 but then those people have started with more until they have drained me out for $13, 000 by the time that bank caught it and stopped. This thing has happened already 4 times with this bank and I would want to switch the banks, however everything is already set up in there.

 

[Pablooo]

Um… this is depending a lot on the vendor, most of it. I have used about 7 online vendors and have not experienced any problems at all yet (thank god!). I have used 3 of them with WU, another 3 being CC and the last one was Pay Pal. I guess that’s only luck, but still.

 

Anyway, the general and I guess the most helpful advice that I am going to share with you here is exactly the same advice that can be applied for a lot of questions that are being asked here on the board: you should do your research!!! There are a lot of people and vendors who are accepting only exclusively Western Union but they are truly reliable and the exact same staff can be said about the CC vendors. Only just need to be and feel safe. Use absolutely all the precautions that you have decided that would make yourself to feel secure and on the safe side. Make yourself feel as safe as it is only possible. If you’re not – don’t use it. and it doesn’t matter what you’re doing , I mean – fakes names for WU, citibank virtual CC # or whatever.

 

In case you are ordering from one certain vendor (or better say – you intend to order from) then you need to search as much information about it as you can. write the website’s name on google and inform yourself the best way you can. read the reviews, know what other people are talking about it. what I need to note here is that one important point is to pay attention to the date of when the reviews where written because there are a lot of sites who are going from reliable to a scam site and then they are closed up – but they still steal people for a while. Besides, try searching other forums, try search on this forum. Ask questions if you’re still not sure. There are a lot of forums like this one that are extremely helpful. only by reading on forums I have gained a lot of information! What I cannot find here I go somewhere else and I surely find. But even if I still didn’t found then I ask and then I surely find out whatever I need. The internet is big. So is the information here. That’s why – do your research!

 

[McBrien]

</p><p>Um… this is depending a lot on the vendor, most of it. I have used about 7 online vendors and have not experienced any problems at all yet (thank god!). I have used 3 of them with WU, another 3 being CC and the last one was Pay Pal. I guess that’s only luck, but still.</p><p> </p><p>Anyway, the general and I guess the most helpful advice that I am going to share with you here is exactly the same advice that can be applied for a lot of questions that are being asked here on the board: you should do your research!!! There are a lot of people and vendors who are accepting only exclusively Western Union but they are truly reliable and the exact same staff can be said about the CC vendors. Only just need to be and feel safe. Use absolutely all the precautions that you have decided that would make yourself to feel secure and on the safe side. Make yourself feel as safe as it is only possible. If you’re not – don’t use it. and it doesn’t matter what you’re doing , I mean – fakes names for WU, citibank virtual CC # or whatever.</p><p> </p><p>In case you are ordering from one certain vendor (or better say – you intend to order from) then you need to search as much information about it as you can. write the website’s name on google and inform yourself the best way you can. read the reviews, know what other people are talking about it. what I need to note here is that one important point is to pay attention to the date of when the reviews where written because there are a lot of sites who are going from reliable to a scam site and then they are closed up – but they still steal people for a while. Besides, try searching other forums, try search on this forum. Ask questions if you’re still not sure. There are a lot of forums like this one that are extremely helpful. only by reading on forums I have gained a lot of information! What I cannot find here I go somewhere else and I surely find. But even if I still didn’t found then I ask and then I surely find out whatever I need. The internet is big. So is the information here. That’s why – do your research!</p><p>

</p><p> </p><p>I really agree with all that have been said up there.</p><p> </p><p>Anyway, in case you are going to get scammed up then you are still going to have some bigger chances that you are going to get your money back in case you are using the credit /debit cards than in case you are using the Western Union. As I said it already once, as soon as you are sending the money via Western Union then it is gone once and forever. As I have said: there is absolutely nothing that you are able to do in order to get them back unless you talk with the scammer so diplomatically that you make him send your money back (is there at least one scammer who have ever send the money back because the victim asked him? LOL). At least, when we are talking about the credit /debit cards then they are offering some type of dispute process and they are limiting your personal liability which very often helps.</p>

 

[drogo999]

Hey McBrian, you are making some really awesome points all over this thread! CC’s are offering a bigger chance that you are going to recover your money back. However, it also depends… in case you are looking for the HTF medications? because if that’s the case then you need to suck it up and there is no other option than using WU. This is what I have done myself.

 

Anyway, I feel the need like I should add another point here to this thread. I mean, only to make it more detailed. As McBrian has said it, the very big importance of the research is impossible to be overstated! But, is still no other thing so valuable as the personal reference from somebody that you really trust. This is the exact way that I have discovered my regular vendor. I started to become a friend with a guy who was the administration of a closed forum for the primarily disabled veterans that were suffering from debilitating and agonizing pains. I then later found out that his source was really trustful and it is still is nowadays. Not so long ago I have found out that they are not even accepting new clients anymore. but if there wouldn’t be him then I would have suffer still now a lot! I already thanked him, but I still need to do it more. someday I am going to meet him and thank in person. We all know that personal connections are taking time time and lots of time as well as gradual trust too. this can take a lot, but even so, they are the best out from all forums that you can be using.