I refuse to put my credit card numbers on the internet. the easiest and quickest way to join is right over the phone. I just did that and it took all of about 10 minutes. I then went to my email and printed off the registration receipt that has my AMA number on it and I was done. card will come in the mail in 4-6 weeks.

What is this hobby store thing you speak of?

Astro

joined over the phone on 5-2 got my cards 5-11....... can't beat that !.

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I have one credit card for online use. The limit is intentionally kept low. I also have a service that watches for transactions and reports them to me immediately. Usually only minutes after the transaction took place.

Even so, in recent years this card has been compromised 5 times now. Each time I got a new card with a new number. Counting the months on the current card/number. Three!

Until they go with the death penalty for credit card fraud, this is the world we have to deal with.

To this day, I have never put any of my card numbers on line. If I want to buy something, I may look it up on line but I will call the company and talk to someone to place the order. I do have a bank that is very careful when it comes to fraud. I made a purchase that didn't go through, or at least the company and I didn't think it did but, anyway, we did three more attempts. Within two or three minutes, the bank called my house to verify if the purchases were legit. That made the wife and I feel much more confident that the bank actually has their customer's backs.

I only use a credit card to shop online. It's not MY card, it's the banks. If it gets compromised, which it has, several times, they send me a new card with new numbers. Virtually every card these days comes with fraud protection standard, so until they come up with a better or more secure system, they can keep dealing with the fraudsters. IMO, it's the credit industry's problem, not mine. I keep my card as secure as possible, but I'm not going to inconvenience myself by calling in orders, or wearing a tin foil hat and going crazy with scanner protection to keep people from getting the numbers. Again, not my card - theirs.

Actually one of the times mine was compromised was at an Outback restaurant. It was the one time I used that card in public vice online and our waiter copied it. We caught it fortunately and caught the waiter and cashier who were doing it. But the over all hassle remains.

Same here, our local Olive Garden

and when they inadvertedly let a fraudulent charge go though,....which can and does happen0.....who's responsible for the payment ? . don't tell me the bank is,.....they didn't issue you a card so they can make the payments on it...... they can't make money by paying interest to themselves. there are no cards that are really yours, they are all the bank's....every one of them. they can jerk it from you at any time for any reason, it says so right in the contract you signed. they can even make you pay for someone else's card. if you don't think so, tell us all how and why we,(as children of our parents), can be held responsible for outstanding unsatisfied credit that our deceased parents have racked up on their cards ?......it happens all the time. I know several friends that this has happened to. it takes years of court dates and thousands of dollars for a layer to get out of being responsible for that type of debt....... I know,......

although nothing ever came of it ( fortunately), .....I suspected that happened to me at a local pub , too. there really is nowhere your card is totally safe. even phone transactions aren't entirely safe,....they are just the "safest" electronic type of transaction.....that is all.

the best way to shop online is with pre-paid card. then at least the "tap" is limited to only what is on the card. most banks can issue a pre-loaded type of card, that you can call in and tell them to put a specified amount on the card for online purchases for a small fee. IMO the small fee is well worth the hassle of call the bank all the time.
the one bad part of our hobby, is that there a re increasingly less and less hobby shops around everyday, which makes shopping online a necessity. I have a hard time with that because my wife has a golden rule of never....and I mean NEVER,.. using a card on line for anything. I understand and whole-heartedly agree with her about that, but it really makes getting anything for this hobby next to impossible where I live. the closest real hobby shop closed it's doors about 6 years ago, now it's a 120 miles one way to a hobby shop that has anything other than a few ARF's and anyone who knows anything about building....and I don't do ARF.