What is "secure enough" ?
This is something that has always irked me since the 1980's and the "carbons" hysteria.
It's actually _more_ secure to email your credit card information, than to email or publically post bank account information. Credit card transactions are (and always have been) "secure".
"Secure servers" provide extremely false sense of security, since you have no idea what is on the other end of the secure server. Is it a fax machine at the local Mail Drop? Or perhaps an email to a free-mail account on a public server.
I feel much more "secure" emailing that information directly to someone's email box, especially if I know they have reasonaby good email security.
What are the odds of having any email transaction intercepted?
Do you hear reports of people who emailed their credit card information to a legitimate email address/company and have had a problem?
What about the large "secure" servers that are hacked into on a weekly basis now, with 1000's of names/addresses/card information and other identifying information stolen?
Realistically, what is the pay off for someone to try to trap your email going to GT, to look for a possible credit card that _might_ have enough credit on it for them to do something -- or might not. Maybe it's just enough to get them caught. What's the pay off?
This is an old debate, and it preys upon the people's "fear" of the unknown.
Actually a wire transfer, since it involves several human interactions at the bank, is actually _LESS_ secure than an email message.
If you are setting up to do business, learn the real "risks" of email and "secure" transactions. Don't be fooled by the term "secure". Realize that what "secure" and "secured" mean to you is VERY different from what the general public feels it means. They see a "secure" server and most feel it's a good thing. It affords them peace of mind. For you, a "secure" server means your transactions are being processed and you are going to get paid without charge backs, withholdings, or other funny business.
Anyway, MC/Visa is still the best way to pay for things, even if you send the information in an email. If you are extremely worried, send the information in 2 emails. To use a credit card for anything of value, a merchant checks the number, the expiration date and even the address. The cards are of no "value" without that.
I have more problem deciding to use a merchant, than whether to send the credit information. The biggest decision is are they honest, and will I get the product as I expect -- not worrying about the payment.
Most stories of credit card problems are anecdotal and Urban Myth.
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