Giving Credit Cards to make Reservations

You have a better chance of winning the lottery then you email being intercepted; IMO it's a reasonable risk to take. Most fraud comes from very low-tech methods like sifting through garbage cans, opening mailboxes, or the clerk writing down you CC number on a piece of paper and selling it to a criminal group. Thus the risk is the same if you email, telephone, or fax your CC number.

While I agree with Michael, I still like to be paranoid. Thus, I email the CC info in 2 separate emails, with an explanation of what I'm doing in the first email. The hotel staff has never had a problem with the 2 emails.

I think Michael's right--the risk of an email being intercepted is vanishingly small compared to the much larger risks you probably take with your credit cards all the time. Do you give your credit card to wait staff at restaurants? They take it away for several minutes out of your sight, plenty of time to copy all your data for later use or resale. But most of us don't think twice about it--though it did upset one of our European visiting scholars once, who tried (unsuccessfully) to insist that the waiter bring a credit card machine to the table so he could watch what they were doing with it!

I email credit card info to foreign hotels and don't worry about it.

This has been frequently discussed. For a whole host of reasons most people have a poor understanding if not complete misconception of internet security. As Michael point out, email is far more secure than telephone/fax transmissions. Remember who invented the internet. Splitting an email does increase security but it is very marginal -- like increase the odd of interception from 1 in 20 million plus to 1 in 40 million plus. The security risk is not how the hotels gets it but what they do with it after they get the number. Cannot control that.

Well, I reserve on hotel sites and have never had a problem,,, I don't worry about that stuff, I know my CC watches out for me,, last year I bought a plane ticket for a flight from Paris to Rome on a foriegn airline with my CC, and my CC phoned me to ask if it was ok,, and it was only 160 euros.. you see they knew I was not actually in Spain,, ( where the charge came from) ,, since you are of course supposed to phone you CC company before you go abroad and let them know you will be charging overseas.

You can also go online and check you charges,, or you could phone you CC company and let them know you will only be making those certian transactions but to not acccept any other ones( till you actually are in the country.

If someone does steal your credit card number (and there are limitless possibilities for how this can be done), your credit card company will simply remove the charges, issue you a new card and send you a letter insisting that they will prosecute the thieves. In my case, they had an address where merchandise ordered online on my AmExwas being shipped in New York. The important thing is not to be paranoid, but to ALWAYS check EVERY bill line by line. Mistakes or fraud can happen anywhere. I read recently that stolen credit card numbers, which used to be very valuable, are now being sold for something like $.60 each now. Anyone can steal a number, but the credit card companies offer you protection, credit card theft leaves a paper trail and you are not responsible to pay for illegal charges. If you only used cash, it would be impossible to get the money back if someone stole it.

I travel with a laptop and sometimes use internet cafe machines. I guess I am more worried that someone will steal my laptop or access the machine I used and get into my email account and see the cc number. (and no, I have no idea if this is a valid concern or paranoia) Anyway, after I have agreed the terms with the hotel, I phone them and give them the cc number, then re-confirm by email.

Just remember that there is absolutely no security when using public access computers or wireless service. And a telephone is less secure than the internet.

You're more likely to get your CC #s stolen from waiters when you hand them the entire card, complete with security numbers

since it hasn't been mentioned yet, some banks allow you to create temporary credit card numbers. Citibank does, I use it all the time for any email / web/ phone purchases. I can set a dollar limit and an expiration date. Furthermore, the number can only be used by one vendor; once a charge has been made on it at store A, it can't be used at any other store.

Have you considered a single-use or temporary CC number? Here's a decent article on different providers/options.

http://consumerist.com/328427/

I've used the PayPal version in the past. No problems there.