The most reliable and secure online payment methods

This year has surely been the worst yet for data breaches, with user data being leaked online on an almost daily basis. Payday lender Wonga, Tesco Bank and even the mighty Yahoo have been hacked this year, with details of over 3 billion accounts posted on the dark web by the start of June. And when it was revealed that the CIA had developed exploits which could affect everything from your iPhone to your smart TV, then it became clear that nothing online was 100% safe.

This endemic level of insecurity is enough to make you want to close down all your social media accounts, go live in the woods and wrap your head in tinfoil. However, as this guy found out, withdrawing from the internet for a year isn't all it is cracked up to be.

So given that pretty much all of us need to spend time online, how can we best achieve the optimal amount of security and privacy? For example, paying for goods and services online has become part-and-parcel of modern life, and makes things much more convenient. But are all payment methods created equal? Let's examine some of the most popular ways of paying for things online and seeing how they stack up in terms of security and reliability.

Paypal

Paypal was one of the first ever e-wallets, starting up in 1998, and in that time it has never suffered any major hacks. It has a number of advantage over using credit cards for online payments, not least the fact that the seller never sees your card details, so you don't have to worry about the seller's systems being hacked. Although in it's early days there were restrictions on where you could use Paypal, now the vast majority of online companies accept it. You can even easily find a Paypal casino, as most of the reputable providers offer this as a payment method. All in all, Paypal is a flexible, versatile and secure way to pay for most things online.

Paysafe

Paysafe is a prepaid card which can be purchased and topped up at over 500,000 retailers worldwide. It has security built-in, as you can pay for it with cash, and no personal details, such as bank account or credit card information, ever have to be entered when using it to pay online. In many ways, prepaid cards are rather like using cash online, and Paysafe is the most widely accepted prepaid card out there. It is versatile and widely accepted too, with gaming companies, social networks and even Spotify embracing it as a payment method.

Skrill

Formerly known as Neteller, Skrill is actually owned by the same group as Paysafe. In many ways, Skrill is very similar to its sister product, as you can use it to pay at a wide variety of online stores, and it has the same high level of security. However, Skrill has the added benefit of providing you with an e-wallet as part of your account, which allows you to send and even receive money from other Skrill accounts, using just an email address. This can be really helpful for sending money to a friend or family member when they are travelling or just as a gift. However, unlike the Paysafe card, Skrill is linked to your bank account, so you do need to be careful about keeping your data and passwords secure.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a new entrant on the online payment scene. Not just a payment method but in fact a separate currency, Bitcoin is based around the block-chain technology, which so far has proved to be unhackable and totally anonymous. The payment method is becoming more and more widely accepted, and its users prefer it over any other way of paying. While Bitcoin is undoubtedly secure, perhaps the biggest problems with it as a payment method is the high volatility in price (it can move 20% in dollar value in a few hours), as well as the time it can take for the transaction to clear – sometimes several days if there is a lot activity on the blockchain. Until these two features improve, we don't recommend Bitcoin as a payment method just yet, unless you prize security and anonymity above everything else.

The internet will never be totally safe, but as long as you take a few reasonable precautions, such as using a password manager and only clicking on links you trust, then you can significantly decrease the odds of something nasty happening to you. When it comes to paying online, then we recommend to use trusted payment providers which offer the best balance of convenience, security and anonymity.