Why don't you try faxing it if you are worried about emailing it? Maybe that's a more reassuring way to go?

I agree its not ideal. I think that villa owners et al should use PayPal instead, which includes credit card payment. This would be much more secure than emailing copies of credit cards, but has a fairly high commission.

So, if PayPal has a fairly high commission then that would be passed on to the guest and then there would be more of any outcry. Why not just use the old fashioned fax machine?

Hi,

I had to provide a copy of my debit card to secure one of my bookings. Decided to fax it rather than email. This was several months ago & my account is fine up to now. Just use the account for travel abroad. If the details get into the wrong hands it can't be used to order goods fron the internet as I have a card reader device which provides extra security.

Ursie

i just dont see why they cant except the numbers only , this has worked for years without people needing a photo copy .

so much for security......because it then sits in some draw somewhere for god knows how long and who can get their hands on that copy .

I would just tell them to accept the numbers !

cheers

batt

agree with ilab, once i asked one of the villa operator for this and the reasons was because all banks in indonesia must have copy of cc front and back in order to deduct from your cc.

So its not from their side who's asking the copy but from the bank side.It's indonesian bank policy in this case.

Prefer to use bank transfer if you dont like to use your cc.:)

More about credit card. I recently had another encounter when booking for a Manila hotel.

I was booking for two travelling parties for separate dates. I was one of them for the earlier dates. After communicating for about a week for both bookings, I proceeded to finalise the booking by payment by my credit card. My bank confirmed the debits against my card. But the booking agent said I must fill up an authorisation form in respect of the second booking since I am not one of the named guests. While I did note that at the time of paying, there is a print that says the credit card holder must be one of the room guests, I proceeded anyhow thinking that since the agent and I have been communicating this condition can be waived anytime. My bank subsequently confirmed the debits against my card.

Then the agent informed me that I have to fill up a credit card authorisation form for the second booking. The authorisation form provides all information pertaining to the card, including cvv.

I refused to do so because as my card has already been debited, they really should not need the authorisation. To which the agent said it is required by their bank.

There was a deadlock for a couple of days, finally the agent informed me that I can just providfe the front four and the last four digits of my card, leave ccv out and sign the form. That to me is acceptable so I did just that and have since received the hotel voucher.

ctmew

i am sort of in the same situation as you .

i have been comunicating with a hotel in phuket , sorted dated , prices and rooms , now they not only want me to pay a 1 night deposit for each room ( 4 of them ) but they want a copy of my passport !

when i asked is i could pay the full amount i was told no as the bank wont allow it and i questioned the passport , they told me that it was banks policy .

what has their bank got to do with anything , the money is comming from my bank not theirs !

I reall dont get all of this .

I am very hesitant in booking with them now , i do not see why i need to do this and considering they use a yahoo email account , i doubt very much i will book with this hotel now ....a waste of a weeks communication .

cheers

batt

Last year I became the victim of a fraudulent use of my card on the net by someone that bought Tiger Airways from Singapore for RM 1,400 plus. My credit card company agreed to reverse the charge after verifying that it was a fraudulent use. So I try to be careful ever since then.

The advise I would give is that if you have to provide your credit card number to secure a booking, if you can, guard your cvv number. If you book on a hotel website, you would notice while they ask for your cc number, they don't normally ask for your cvv number. When I am asked to provide the cvv number as well just to secure a booking, I would think twice.