Is having web access to my credit card accounts risky?

I`d be more concerned about the security of the PC you use to connect

- have you got any AV / firewall / alternative browsers / spyware scanners installed ?

- if not, it`d be the first thing i`d do !

I`ve got some pointers from personal experience on how to keep the crap off your system on my site here:

All the files I link to are free with the exception of Pest Patrol (not an affiliate link), and I point out free alternatives for pretty much everything you might need, as well as links to external sites where you can check on the legitimacy of the anti-spyware offerings.

No

Colin, thank you for all the guidance. Ad-Aware and Spybot have been run and the latest XP updates applied. I can hear the computer squeak with cleanliness. :=)

--David (Kingsburg, California)

My pleasure - but to be safe, i`d also recommend running Sysclean - it often finds things that Norton and AVG miss in my experience, even when they`re fully up to date.

I use Avast myself as a day-to-day antivirus (and find it very good*), but still like to run the latest version of Sysclean every month or two, just to make completely sure.

• the skin / interface it comes with as standard looks crap though - there`s a very nice one called MacLoverOSX which makes it look and feel more like a commercial app though (right click on the icon, start Avast antivirus, click the "eject button" at the top left to get a menu, select skin, and you`ll have to have a wander around their site to find it)

Make sure you've got a firewall running too. Xp comes with one, but I couldn't say how good it is as the first thing I did was to turn it off and use Zone Alarm instead.

Do you ever give your card to a waiter in a restaurant to pay a bill?

Using web access has to be a million times safer! Posting from Peter Rogers

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