Shopping online comes with at least some inherent risks. There’s a risk that the product you purchased doesn’t arrive, a risk that it gets damaged during shipment, or even a risk that the shirt that gets delivered is different from what the seller portrayed online.
Many credit cards offer protections that will cover you in the event any of these problems occurs. But what if you paid for your order using your debit card or an EFT from your bank account? Typically, debit cards and EFT transfers will not cover you if something goes wrong with your online purchase, which is a significant disadvantage if you are trying to be responsible and not use a credit card for every purchase.
Fortunately, there still are methods that you can use to reap still the protections that credit cards provide for online orders even with paying with your debit card or bank account. Services such as Amazon Pay or Paypal are excellent alternatives that will allow you to pay for online orders with your debit or bank accounts while minimizing the typical risks associated with those online purchases.
Both services offer virtually the same guarantees, just operate under different names. For Amazon, it is their “A-to-Z protection.” (Btw here is fun little tidbit for you, this guarantee is portrayed in their logo, with the arrow pointing from the A to the Z). For Paypal, the guarantee operates under their Purchase Protection Plan.
As you can see from the above chart, the two payment options are pretty similar to one another. The largest difference is that Paypal gives the consumer double the time to file claims on any problems they may have.
Since these services allow you to purchase your online orders using debit cards or your bank account, they are excellent alternatives to paying with a credit card, and still have some peace of mind when you buy online.