Is It Safe To Save Cards While Shopping Online?
Hello!
With just about five days to hit the halfway mark of April, I hope the first half of the month was decent for you, I am so not ready to sweat my guts out this summer. God, if you’re reading this, please cast a spell and make the heat disappear this year! I do not want to impulse-buy 6 different sunscreens to layer and try.
Speaking of impulse purchases which I am sure many of us do, tell me:
What I was up to: I had a good week at work and… life! It was a good mix of productivity and fun after a long time.
Met up with friends and family to celebrate my husband’s birthday over a fun brunch on Sunday. Also, no points for guessing that’s what triggered this email newsletter, I purchased this phone case with my saved card info online hehe,
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Market ka haal: The Indian stock market has been bouncing around like a cricket ball the past week as Sensex soared past the 75,000 mark, just after about 82 days of hitting 70K in December! 😎 Even the broad-based sectoral gains that facilitated this couldn't help for long. On April 9th, Nifty declined by 0.72% to 22,372.7, and the BSE Sensex fell 0.58% to 73,791.9. This downturn was primarily due to escalating global trade tensions, notably, the U.S. imposing a 104% tariff on Chinese goods, which sparked fears of a global economic slowdown. 📊
The RBI has responded by cutting the repo rate for the second time in 2025 and shifting to an accommodative stance to stimulate growth. 🚀Despite these measures, investor sentiment remains cautious, leading to broad-based selling across sectors. I read somewhere that the market is just having a moment of self-doubt before regaining its groove. and I agree! 😊
Humara Gyaan: You’re shopping online and about to check out. You want to pay with your card. You’re almost there, and the platform asks, “Do you want to save this card as per RBI guidelines?” You pause. Should you? Is it safe? Who sees what? Let’s decode what’s actually going on behind the scenes.
1️⃣ Card Tokenization: When a merchant says they’re “saving” your card, they’re not actually keeping your 16-digit number because they CAN’T. Instead, your card gets replaced by a unique token or a masked version of your card, which only that specific merchant can use. For instance, your XXX bank card ending in 1293 becomes a random string like S98X-91Z4-Q56D which is useless to anyone else. This token is stored instead of your actual card number. And every time you use that merchant again, the same token gets re-used to process your payment securely.
2️⃣ What If The Site Gets Hacked? This is truly RBI’s mic drop moment because even if a merchant gets hacked, your actual card data won’t leak. Merchants can’t access your full card details anymore. That’s reserved for the card networks and your issuing bank. So if some sketchy app or website gets compromised, attackers get access to… tokens. Not your card. Not your CVV. Not your expiry date. Tokens are meaningless outside the merchant they were generated for.
3️⃣ Can a Hacker Use Tokens On The Same Site? Each token is uniquely generated for a specific card and is bound to a particular merchant and device context. Even if a hacker obtains this token, they cannot use it elsewhere or impersonate the cardholder on the same platform, because they won't be able to obtain sensitive card information needed to process transactions.
In a world where every click has a risk, understanding these mechanisms empowers you to shop with confidence and peace of mind. Firstly review why you want to purchase something so often that you need to save info and if you have to, know what you’re signing up for.
Here’s to informed decisions🍻
Sayali❤️
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