Is it safe to send credit card information over text?

Is it safe to send your credit card number via text? Honestly, no way! I mean, think about it for a second – your phone, it’s practically glued to your hand, right? But it’s also super easy to lose, or even worse, have it stolen. Remember that time my friend Sarah had her phone snatched right out of her purse at the coffee shop? Gone. Poof. And everything on it – including, she later found out, a text with a partial credit card number she’d sent to her sister about a shared online purchase. Yikes!

Even if your phone doesn’t get stolen, that text message is sitting there, vulnerable. I know, I know, texts seem pretty private, but they’re not bulletproof. Someone could hack into your phone, or your recipient’s phone. It’s just not worth the risk, you know? I once read somewhere – I think it was a news article or something – about how many data breaches are related to phone compromises. It was scary, way more than I realized.

So, please, just don’t do it. Seriously. Use those secure online payment systems – you know, the ones with the extra layers of security, the ones that make you jump through a bunch of hoops before they even think about letting you pay? Yeah, those. They might be a bit more of a hassle, but they’re a million times safer than a simple text message. Trust me on this one. It’s just not worth the potential headache, or worse.