If you are paying a seller directly with a credit card, his bank has spent time and money confirming that he is trustworthy. He pays a dollar amount each month as well as a percentage of sales charged to cards to the cc company usually through a central group like Moneris.
If the seller does not have an HTTPS url, you can further protect yourself by sending your card number in two or more bursts. Our customers often do this, because they know that we do not keep their cards on file.
If the seller does not accept credit cards directly, he will probablybe accepting them through Paypal. Paypal does not releae your card information (or any other financial information) to the seller. In addition, they have a very strong Buyer Protection Policy which protects you against, items not received, items not as described, and items damaged in transit.
Paypal will also allow you to pay directly from your bank account without revealing any of that information to the seller, however, your Buyer Protection is less with that option.
