Using email to reserve guest house ; they want credit card info, name etc. Is it safe?

Personally, I think the risk is minimal, given the protections credit cards have. You might send 2 emails, each with half the credit card number, and the expiry date on one and address on the other.

WhatsApp is safer than email, as it's end-to-end encrypted. However, it's safest is to call. Since WhatsApp is an option, it's free over wifi.

This is a very common request, not unusual at all.

My understanding is that providing the information by phone (voice) in a call you initiate is supposed to be safer. With a wifi calling app, the phone call would be free or very cheap. I believe that using WhatsApp for a phone call is safer then sending WhatsApp text. You can also send an end-to-end encrypted email. Some encryption services offer a free trial.

Did you decide on the Sweet Dreams B&B? They sent us to a link for a payment service, kind of like PayPal.

Thanks for asking. I tried to book but they told me that they aren't sure they will be open for my January date. They suggested I check back in a couple of months but I'd like to get my plans settled sooner. Meanwhile I found another that looks OK (though maybe not as good as Sweet Dreams) and am trying to book

I would think business would want to make money and would want to make transactions as easy as possible. I'm not sure that there are going to be so many tourists to choose from in the current global economy.

Just an opinion. Once I sent my credit card in an email to a hotel and had additional charges to my credit card.

Fortunately, the person who used my credit card number did not realize that I had yet to leave the US when the charges were made at an expensive restaurant in France. Therefore, it was easier to get my disputed charges reversed. I remember the Chase security person laughing when I pointed out the fact the day the charges were made in France, I had been to the local grocery here in Florida the same day at practically the same time.

Never again will I or have I ever sent a credit card number in an email or text. Too many people at the other end of that email system or text number may have access to that email or that text. It is 2026 and anyone in the hospitality business should have a safer way to book their property. I would find another place to stay. Buyer beware.

Threadwear
Thanks. I believe you are right.

Well, the same thing happened to me, but it was when I paid a bill at a restaurant at a US ski resort. CapitalOne asked if I had bought something from Walmart.com at 1 pm at a certain time the next day and I replied that it would have been hard since I was half way down a ski run at that time. New card on the way.

From your other post, I guess this is for Civitavecchia the night of January 4, 2027?

Look on booking.com, there’s plenty of properties to choose from on that date.

"WhatsApp is safer than email, as it's end-to-end encrypted."

They disagree:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/whatsapp-end-to-end-encrypted-messages-arent-that-private-after-all/

But it's close enough for most people.

RobertH. ...I guess it's a roll of the dice but having had fraud on my credit cards several times, I don't want to take a chance. The city doesn't seem to have any good hotel so one must really on smaller establishments that may want to take credit card info in insecure ways.

Marco, Yes there are properties on sites like booking.com but not the ones that seem the best as far as I can tell. Maybe in a few months they will be listed. I assume Booking.com, Expedia etc are secure. I've never used them

Oh no, I'm not saying to use it. I don't touch whatsapp/facebook/meta.

The safest way I know is a phone call to the place. But then you've got the standard "an employee/owner just sells your credit card info".

[shrug]

As you said, "a roll of the dice". You pays your money and you take your chances.

Call 📞 using WhatsApp, or, if only a land line is available, use Google Voice ($0.01 a minute to Italian landlines).

Scripta manent, verba volant.

I've had my Visa charge cards compromised twice in the past 10 years and it's probably just a coincidence that I had communicated the card info to hotels via emails a few weeks before each incident. One of those times the details were split between 2 separate emails. I'm sure that cards are compromised often from phone communication but emails increase the risk.

I wish that emails could be safer because I feel it's a much more accurate way to capture details.

I'm always relieved when hotels send a link for payment. I'd hate to repeat my most recent incident. Someone was placing $2500 bets on the ESPN site and another was submitting weird charges from Colombia. It may be activity derived from info on the dark net as many of us have had our information spilled by several huge companies. Still...I think the emails were the problem.

I'm usually on the other side working for a tour operator. Ask some details is normal and necessary for the booking contract: names, address where the person live, phone number and e-mail and so on.
On the other side ask the credit card details is not the best way for both. As you told, for the customer is a risk of being charged too much or charged fraudulent costs. But if something has been charged not directly by the owner of the c/c is legitimate ask a refund to the bank for any reason, so the payment can be very easily canceled.
For this second reason the fraud could be even in the other direction: the customer enjoy the holiday and then easily obtain the cancellation of the payment.
The best solution is if the B&B send you a link for on-line payment. In that way the credit card number and details aren't travelling on unsafe messages and the payment cannot be canceled or overcharged.

Email doesn't have encryption. I would never send my credit card info via email. There are so many valid options for digital payments these days that I would not book with someone who insisted on my info via email.

What about giving credit card info and data over the phone? Is that safe?

What about giving credit card info and data over the phone? Is that safe?

We have done it that way for years and have never had a problem security wise. After giving the information, we do request an email confirmation to the effect that the lodging is in face reserved.

The cost of the call is minimal compared to the total cost of the trip. Just remember to account for the time zone difference.