Shopping online for Christmas

Well, I think, obviouly, people now feel much more confident shopping online than they ever have done before and that's one of the reasons that we're seeing such a massive (1) spend-up today.

But, of course, it's important to remember it isn't just today. This has been (2) going on now, progressively for years and we're really sort of concerned in a way about people spending on credit cards. We wanna make sure they're doing it sensibly as well as, of course, making sure they get the best bargains by shopping online.

Lots of people when they do a search, tend to (3) go on to the company that (4) comes up and make that purchase straight away. So, my advice would be, of course, to (5) shop around by using all of the tools in the search engines, really not committing to that first purchase. Don't be tempted by all the flashing on the screen, the buy now before it'll be gone, really take your time.

Just because you're shopping online, it's no different to going to the shops, you know, take your time, (6) look around, make the purchase when you're sure you've done the comparisons, that's very, very important, because, of course, a lot of companies pay a lot of money to be higher up the listings and they know that they're gonna attrack certain amount of business - it doesn't mean of course, that they're the cheapest.

It's always best to use a credit card rather than a Visa debit card because the protections are a lot higher when you're using the credit card that you're (7) paying off in the future, rather than it's a card that's (8) coming directly out of your account. And that's because the banks and certainly the credit card companies have (9) set it up that way.

So, a, (5) shop around, but b, use your actual credit card rather than a debit card because certainly if there is any fraud that will offer you the highest level of protection that you can have. But, of course, we all hear about the bad stories, and they are out there, of course, just make sure that you're never responding to any e-mails that come into your inbox saying please can I have your credit card number to confirm your purchase. No properly (9) set-up company would do that. It's the information you're entering on. That is the one and only time you should be doing that.