There are advantages in shopping online. Some of these advantages include: convenience as the item you will purchase is delivered directly to your door, and usually prices are cheaper.
Consumers who are shopping online using their credit cards to pay their purchases may pay more than the price of the item purchase, if they just pay the amount owing on the statement of account without first properly checking the charges reflected on the monthly statements.
You should not presume that the monthly statement you receive from the credit card company is always accurate. There are timescharges are not accurate due to human or computer errors.
If the credit card company is not in error the company (merchant) where you purchased your item may charge you twice or even more for it had your credit card information.
A good example was a certain Roger (not his real name) came to me showing several months of his statement of accounts from a credit card company where they showed charges for three consecutive months of the same amount on his purchased of an item online.
He already paid the full purchase price by credit card. He called the credit card company to complain of the extra charges on an item he already paid in full. The credit card company advised him to contact the merchant first and demand for the refund of the extra-charges. Should the merchant refuse, the credit company would help Roger in getting the money back.
Roger followed the instruction but the merchant did not refund the overcharge amount.Thus, the credit company got involved to help Roger. Roger had to fill-up the Complaint Form provided by the credit company. It took the credit company about a couple of months before Roger got his money back.
Had Roger did not review his statement of accounts he would be paying 200% more of the item he purchased.
To avoid paying more than the price of the item you purchased online you need to be vigilant by reviewing line by line every statement of account you receive from the credit company to find out for extra charges. Otherwise, you will be paying more than you are supposed to pay. Pay only what you owe.