I will readily admit that I love shopping on the internet! There are literally millions of money transactions made across the planet daily! As a consumer myself, I am always looking for the best deals with privacy and security in mind.

Being retired Air Force (20 years), budgeting was and still is important to my wife and me. Convenience of ordering products over the internet is also important to us. This saves us time rather than dealing with bricks and mortar visits to locate the products we want or need.

It truly amazes me how some can feel fearful of ordering something on the internet. I have more fear giving my credit card to a waitress or waiter in a restaurant to pay for a meal. I understand that identity theft is and has been spotlighted very much over the last several years, but I am more worried about leaving a paper trail of my transactions. That's why I have a shredder at home. I shred every snail mail credit card offer and anything that has my name and personal info on it.

There are some precautions you can take when ordering a product or service from the internet....

When ordering from an internet vendor, always make sure the url you are ordering from starts with "https" and not "http". The "S" in "https" means you are ordering from a secure site. Essentially, your personal info is scrambled and encrypted to complete the transaction. The page you order from should also display a little "lock icon" normally located at the top of the page near the url address, or it's common to see it at the bottom of the page as well.

Savings, Convenience and Privacy are the three most important things to me when ordering on line. I think common sense also comes to mind when ordering through the internet too. If I feel there is something wrong with a website in any way, I simply won't order from it. There are plenty of other safe websites to make orders from.

To help overcome your fear of ordering on line you might want to order a small inexpensive item first and do it from a well established company. This will give you the confidence needed to try other less well known sites.

I guess if I had to put Savings, Convenience and Privacy in order of importance when ordering on line, I would make Privacy first. To me it's being able to order something from the privacy of my own home without shouting out to the world of what I am buying. Whether it's medications, personal hygiene products, self-help publications, money making opportunities, etc. I want my privacy.

I know I shouldn't really care about what other people think of me because of what I buy, but I do. Frankly, it's no else's business what I order or buy for my own wants or needs. I'm sure many others feel the same way as I do. So, the internet gives me that Privacy and it can for you too.

I will conclude by saying if you have a fear of ordering something on line you are indeed missing out. Try to overcome your fear by taking that first step in ordering something inexpensive or something you need. In time, you will come to know and trust your gut feeling when ordering on the internet. Give it a try and you will definitely be rewarded with Savings, Convenience and Privacy. Happy internet shopping! :)