American Bar Association Offers Tips for Safe Holiday Shopping Online

SafeShopping.org and SafeBorrowing.com are two services offered by the American Bar Association this holiday season.

With the economy making all of us concerned about how, when and where we spend our money this holiday season, the American Bar Association has some tips for shopping online.

Tips include reminders to double check pricing, to use a secure internet connection and to pay with a credit card – the safest way to pay online.

These tips are critical as retailers this holiday season are enhancing their shopping and social media sites. Retailers are improving their shopping carts, suggesting additional items, offering customer reviews and providing better search within their sites – all to make it easier for consumers to shop online.

While, the amount of online shopping has risen dramatically over the past decade, overall holiday spending is expected to decline slightly in most categories this year, according to research by the National Retail Federation.  However, online shopping is expected to increase, with the percentage of Americans shopping online growing from 37.6 percent in 2006 to an expected 47.2 percent this year, according to research by pricegrabber.com.

Along with suggesting a review of the fine print posted on shopping sites, the ABA www.SafeShopping.org site answers questions around fraud, privacy and security – all information that will help consumers become better and more secure shoppers.

Wise Credit Card Use

A related ABA web site – www.SafeBorrowing.com – looks at ways to use credit cards wisely, including opening statements immediately to examine the validity of the charges that appear there.  It outlines the action to take if a consumer finds charges for unfamiliar items or services.

The Safe Borrowing site also provides information on how and when to pay credit card bills and what to do when credit card companies change their terms.

Whether at the holidays or at other times of the year, advice from these two ABA web sites can help shoppers make good decisions on credit and online shopping.

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

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