Paying bills over the phone can make your credit at risk

Do you feel secured doing that? I used to. Till I learned something about one place I pay my bill.

Usually when you pay over the phone you are talking to a represenative of the company that you are paying your bill to. You feel fairly confident that no one else will see your credit card information and that it is just paying a bill. But you don't really know for sure what is happening at the other end of the phone. Are they writing down your information and laying it on their desks till they get time to process it? Or are they putting the information into a database that the next person can see your credit card number and nothing is blocked out? I have worked at places that did both.

If you don't get an approval code while on the phone, you may want to ask, if they are writing the information down on paper to key it in later. These papers can lay on the desk all day long till they get time to key it into the system. It may be on a small sheet of paper, that will be thrown in the trash after its been keyed with all your information on it. It may never make it to the shredder, just the regular trash can that the cleaners take out to the main dumpster. That small piece of paper with all your information isn't secured.

What you can do: Ask before you give your credit card information. If they tell you they write it down, opt to pay your bill another way. Or ask if they can key it in the system while you are on the phone without writing it down.

While there may only be employees in the department that is dealing with credit cards, you can't be sure, sometimes friends of the employees will come into the office, and other people that don't work for the company may be there.

The other thing that some companies do is not black out your credit card numbers. For safety and security no one other then the person keying the credit card number should be able to see it. But that's not always the case. When the next rep goes into your account they should see XXXX XXXX XXXX 1234. The last 4 numbers is all you need to see to verify the card. But some places will have the whole number showing. Now you have to worry about who can get into your account and see that number.

Ask how secure your credit information will be BEFORE giving them the information.

Pay your bills online

Send a check or money order into the company

Get a credit card just to pay bills. A prepaid credit card will protect your assets.