Online shopping has become very popular over the last few years as people have wanted to avoid entering shops in order to stay safe during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

You can now purchase food, books, clothing, homewares, potentially a trip into space as well as newspaper and magazine subscriptions – all online. 

Payment methods

1. When possible, it is important to use services such as PayPal that enable you to send payments directly to businesses and individuals without disclosing your credit/debit card details. Paypal also makes it easier to keep track of payments, dispute payments and cancel automatic debits where a company has automatically made your single purchase an ongoing monthly/yearly charge.
2. If there is no option to use a payment method such as PayPal, ensure the website you are using is secure before entering your credit/debit card details.

For tips on how to tell if a website is secure see Online Security and Privacy 

Using PayPal

1. Firstly, you must create a PayPal account. Follow this link to the login page and press SIGN UP NOW 
   
2. Follow the prompts to create your personal account. PayPal will ask you for your phone number, email address, full name and password. It will then get you to add in your credit/debit card details.
3. Now that you have an account, you can use PayPal to pay online.
4. When you are ready to pay for your item online, look for the option to pay via PayPal and click PAYPAL. For example, here I am wanting to buy a watering can from Bunnings – it has given me the option to pay via card, PayPal, Zip or Openpay. I select PAYPAL.
   
5. PayPal will then pop up with a little box where you can login using your email address and password.
   
6. Once you have logged in you can select the card you would like to pay on (one you have previously added to your PayPal account) and pay.

Keeping track of your purchases 

We recommend keeping track of the money you spend online. These tips can help.

1. Once you’ve purchased a product online, the company should send you a confirmation email. This email may include details on the product/s purchases overall price paid and the shipping information (If applicable). Double check to ensure all these details are correct.
2. When purchasing a subscription (to a music streaming service for example) it is common that companies will automatically withdraw money from your account once the next payment is due (usually monthly or annually). If possible, you can opt out of this OR keep record of the date you purchased your subscription to ensure you cancel it before the payment is withdrawn.