If you need to send your credit card info to another individual, email may seem like a suitable delivery option. It’s quick, convenient, and easily accessible for the recipient.
But is it safe to send credit card info by email?
You should avoid sending your credit card info by email. Email accounts are frequently breached because it’s challenging to keep track of all the devices an email is logged in on. Furthermore, cybercriminals can access email accounts during password hacks. Therefore, it’s not safe to send credit card info by email.
Don’t leave the safety of your credit card info up to chance. Instead of emailing your credit card info, you should use Trustworthy. Trustworthy is a secure digital storage and collaboration platform that secures your credit card info and other sensitive and important information and allows you to safely share it with the people who need it. I’ll speak more about Trustworthy later on in this guide.
In today’s post, you’ll learn:
Reasons you may be required to send credit card info by email
If you should send credit card info by email
How to send credit card by email securely
How Trustworthy can help share your credit card information
Other ways to share your credit card information securely
Reasons You May Be Required To Send Credit Card Info By Email
There are many reasons why you need to send your credit card to another party. For example, a business contract may require you to send your credit card info. Or perhaps you need to send your credit card info to a hotel to reserve a room.
Regardless of why you need to send your credit info to another party, using email isn’t safe. They may write your credit card info on a pad, notebook, or computer document. Then, your credit card info is in someone else’s hands, and you don’t know if they will keep your info secure.
Another reason why you need to send credit card info by email is that you’re purchasing an item online, and the store needs to confirm your information. You should avoid purchasing products from vendors that require you to send your credit card info through email.
Let’s dive deeper into why you shouldn’t send your credit card info by email.
Should You Send Your Credit Card Info By Email?
You should never send your credit card info by email. Of all the ways you can transfer information to another person on the internet, email is the most likely to be compromised. The recipient can forward your credit card info to another person, or somebody can access their email account.
When you email your credit card info, you are no longer in control over who handles the message, how many copies are created, and how long the email is stored.
There are several risks to be aware of when you send your credit card info by email. These include account hacks, data breaches, and unsafe handling by the recipient.
Risk 1: Compromised Email Accounts
When you email your credit card info to another party, your credit card will live in your email account and their email account. Therefore, anybody who accesses either account can view your credit card info.
With all the devices we have nowadays, it’s difficult to keep track of where your email is logged in. For example, if you log into a public computer with your email and forget to log out, the next person who uses the computer can access your email. Then, they can easily find the email with your credit card info.
This risk is amplified because you’ll also need to worry about the recipient’s email account. Is the person you’re sending your credit card info to somebody that practices safe email usage? Can you trust them not to forward your credit card info to somebody else?
You need to consider these questions before emailing your credit card info.
Risk 2: Data Breaches
Generally speaking, any messages you send by email are plainly viewable by any mail server that transfers the message along the way. Depending on how and where you send the email, there may be three or four mail servers that help to deliver your email.
However, some mail servers such as Yahoo and Gmail automatically encrypt transmissions between you and their servers. But once your email goes into another mail server without encryption, your credit card info is exposed.
Therefore, if a hacker watches you and intercepts your email as you send it to the recipient, the hacker can see your credit card info. Furthermore, cybercriminals can hack your email account remotely if you don’t have two-factor authentication enabled on your account.
Then, the hacker can scan your sent messages for emails containing sensitive information like your credit card number. Overall, the risks of sending your credit card info by email outweigh the convenience and accessibility of email.
Avoid sending personal info by email at all costs.
How To Send Credit Card By Email Securely
If you want to send your credit card by email, there are a few crucial steps to follow to protect your information.
Although I don’t recommend sending your credit card or any other sensitive information by email, here’s the best way to secure your email.
1. Put Your Credit Card in a Separate Document
First, it’s crucial to put your credit card information in a separate text document. You should never paste your credit card in plain text in an email body. Instead, I recommend using a separate document program like Microsoft Word.
Furthermore, don’t input your entire credit card information into the document. It’s always risky to send your entire credit card, including all 16 digits, the expiration, and CVV. Instead, I recommend leaving out the CVV and sending it to the recipient using another communication platform.
I’ll speak more on this in step three.
2. Encrypt Your File
Once you input your partial credit card info into the Word document, secure the file with a password. On Microsoft Word, click File, then Protect Document. You can find the Protect Document option under the Info section.
Next, click Encrypt with Password. Type in a unique and complex password. After you encrypt your file with a password, the document will ask you to enter the password when you open the document in the future.
Therefore, hackers can’t access your credit card info even if they breach your email account and find the document.
3. Send Email From a Secure Wi-Fi Network
Never send sensitive emails from a public Wi-Fi network. Cybercriminals can monitor unsecured networks and steal your personal information. Instead, send the email from your home Wi-Fi network but make sure your network is password-protected first.
Then, attach the document to the email and enter the recipient’s email address. Before you press Send, make sure the recipient’s email is correct. This way, you can guarantee the email is going to the right person.
4. Share File Password and CVV Separately
After you send the email, you’ll need to share the document’s password and your CVV. The best way to accomplish this is by calling the recipient. Ask the recipient to call you once they’re ready to open to document. By sharing your file password and CVV by phone, your info won’t be permanently stored anywhere in text form.
5. Delete Email After Sending
Delete the email from your Sent folder as soon as the recipient receives it. Then, delete the email from your Trash folder. Since you don’t need to store your own credit card info, there’s no reason to keep it inside your email account. The longer your credit card info lives on your email account, the higher the risk of someone stealing your info.
Furthermore, ask the recipient to delete the email once they finish using your credit card. The most significant risk when sending your credit card info by email is how the other person handles your information.
It’s imperative the recipient deletes the email from their inbox and Trash folder. Once they delete your email, you can alleviate most of the risks that are out of your control.
Luckily, Trustworthy has a much easier and more secure solution for you. With Trustworthy, you can safely share a secure link that provides a view of your credit card. You can control who has access to the link and for how long (i.e 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week). You can also see how many times the link has been viewed and revoke access at any time.
How Trustworthy Can Help Share Your Credit Card Information (Better Than Email)
Don’t risk financial damage by emailing your credit card info. Not only do you risk someone else stealing your credit card number, but you’ll also need to cancel your credit card and wait for a new one to ship. Furthermore, if somebody uses your credit card, you’ll need to call your provider for a chargeback, which may take weeks to complete.
Trustworthy is a highly secure digital storage platform with innovative sharing capabilities. It’s immensely more secure to send your credit card info using Trustworthy than email. This is because Trustworthy offers bank-level encryption and requires all accounts to enable two-factor authentication. To share with trusted family members or contacts that may require ongoing access to your credit card information, you can give individuals permissions that allow them to view your information.
Let’s take a closer look at how Trustworthy works.
Inside Trustworthy’s dashboard, you’ll see individual sections on the left-hand side. You can use Trustworthy for much more than only storing and sharing credit cards. Trustworthy has built-in sections to store family IDs, passwords, insurance documents, and much more.
Let’s view the Money section, which you can use for credit cards, bank accounts, retirement accounts, and so forth.
If you click Add more +, a window appears asking what type of information you want to upload:
After you click Credit Card, Trustworthy will ask you what type of card you have:
Then, you can select your bank and enter your credit card information. Once you fill out your credit card info completely, you can label it, and it will be shown as a card as you saw above.
You can head back to the Dashboard to share your credit card with another party and click Manage access.
Here, you can click Add role + to share access to your credit card.
Then, you can send the collaborator limited access to information in your Money section by sending an email invitation. Once you send the invitation, the collaborator will receive an email and is required to create a Trustworthy account with two-factor authentication to view your shared credit card info.
As you saw earlier, you can share much more than just your credit card info. You can use Trustworthy as a family management platform to store all of your sensitive information. Then, your family members can access the information they need at any time.
For example, if your mother frequently needs to use your credit card, it’s not safe for her to keep your credit card info saved on a phone or computer. So instead, she can log into Trustworthy every time she needs to use your credit card.
Trustworthy (click here to start your free trial) eliminates the risks of sending your credit card by email and protects your private information.
Other Ways To Share Your Credit Card Information Securely
There are a few alternatives when you need to share your credit card information quickly and securely. While Trustworthy is the best platform for sharing sensitive information, it’s important to discuss all of the available options.
Let’s dive in.
1. Secure Messaging App
Several third-party messaging apps offer end-to-end encryption. End-to-end encryption creates a secure data tunnel for you and the recipient. As such, outside parties can’t view your messages and credit card info.
The best third-party messaging apps are:
WhatsApp
Signal
Telegram
These apps are free to download on your mobile device and computer. Furthermore, you can add password protection through these apps with a text password, fingerprint, or face ID. Enable password protection in the Settings menu of each app.
2. Phone Call
Instead of sending your credit card info by email and leaving a paper trail, it’s safer to call the recipient. Then, the recipient can enter your credit card info directly into a payment processor without needing to jot it down.
Other Credit Card Resources
Is It Safe To Send Credit Card Info By WhatsApp?
Is It Safe To Send Credit Card Info By Text? (5 Safety Tips)
