In Reply to: Paying hotel deposit posted by Pet on Saturday, 15. March 2008 at 13:19 Bali Time:
Dear Pauline,
I usually book hotels over the internet.
In general, I only give my credit card details over an internet site, when the site or transfer of info is 'secured'. How to know if you are on a secured site ? Quite easy : when you are on the page where they ask your CC details, check whether the address of that page starts with https (instead of usual http). If so, I would not mind.
If the page is not secured, I would definitely prefer to send this info by fax. I read too many stories and heard too many warnings to be careful. If fax is not possible, you could send details through in separate mails : in first mail you give number, in second mail expiry date etc.... This will not be as safe as fax, but definitely better then putting all info in one mail.
Hope this helps,
Bart