There is always Chelmer valves too or CVC....two/three decades before I´ve had some good matches from them; but a few years back some duff ones..... caught them out..
rJ
rJ
Only issue I have with Watford is they don't take PayPal and insist on you putting your credit card details into the webpage. From a security perspective that's a no-no for me for several years now.
From a security perspective, there's no difference between punching your CC info into a secure page or putting in your Paypal details these days.
The CC companies all side with the customer in the event of fraud.
Frankly, the only time I've had my details stolen was using in person POS terminals or third party ATM.
My Visa was skimmed and itunes charges were wracked up - 2 minutes on the phone sorted that - card cancelled and replaced. The other time it was my debit card but they locked it out before any charges were made.
Mastercard has much better fraud prevention than Visa but these days both are quite secure.
If you're really that concerned, you could mail a cheque and wait or buy a prepaid CC to use for online, too.
I started punching my CC info into sites when sites like JLCPCB started charging a surcharge for Paypal.
The CC companies all side with the customer in the event of fraud.
Frankly, the only time I've had my details stolen was using in person POS terminals or third party ATM.
My Visa was skimmed and itunes charges were wracked up - 2 minutes on the phone sorted that - card cancelled and replaced. The other time it was my debit card but they locked it out before any charges were made.
Mastercard has much better fraud prevention than Visa but these days both are quite secure.
If you're really that concerned, you could mail a cheque and wait or buy a prepaid CC to use for online, too.
I started punching my CC info into sites when sites like JLCPCB started charging a surcharge for Paypal.
I use my CCs online sparingly - and split between the two (high and low limits) based on how much I trust the vendor and whether or not it can go on the low limit card. Why? Because WHEN your CC gets skimmed or stolen is the VERY time you need it for some emergency or required business travel. And you NEED to rack up $3500 in charges right now, and NOT in 7 to 10 business days when the replacement is due.
On a VISA, I was getting frauded several times a year. They would send a new card, often before I noticed. But then it got to be almost every month. And then it took VISA over a month to send a new card. Combined with the time they locked the card and robo-called us because I spent $20 in Belgium. Was I in Belgium? Duh, internet!
Over 2 years on American Express, zero frauds or false refusals, easy online payment, points-back almost as good as the Discover card. One drawback is that many local shops (gas, burgers) will not take American Express, the rake-off is higher than other cards. (I get it for gas, a zero-margin racket, but the burger shops sure should have the margin.)
I've had good luck w/ Vacuum Tubes Inc. They seem to have wide variety and my experience best prices
https://vacuumtubesinc.com
https://vacuumtubesinc.com
As others have said, using a CC has been problem free for me although I prefer Paypal if the company is not one I have used before. Used WV for a few years and never had a problem.
The problem with using a credit card is if the web site store or a bussiness store your infos on their servers and it get hack, the hackers will have all your personal infos and will start using it to order stuff on line . The bank will certainly replace the card, but wont be able to stop the resale of your personal indentity. Hackers will simply reorder other cards and keep going. If theyre good at social enginering, they can end up with a lot of infos about you. It's called : identity thief. They can use your identity for money landering, order stuff on line etc. It can be a one time occurence, the bank replace the card and that's that, or in the worst case scenario, it can plague you for a couple of years.
Using Paypal eliminate a lot of possibilities for the hackers to get too much of your personal infos. Of course Paypal could be hack too, but that very unlikly. But even big companies like yahoos got successfully attack. So it's always a possibility.
I worked 25 years in IT, and 10 of those years for a big financial institution. I was working in the credit card and payment solution departement (debit card, credit card, Smart phone payment solution, etc.), and worked closely with the fraud departement's people. It can get very annoying if your infos fall into wrong hands. Most of those hackers are amateurs, no big deal, they get caught, but some are pretty heavy weight. Anyway, I'm not writing this to scare anybody, but it happens.
I use Paypal everywhere on line, and if I have to use my credit card, I dont let the web site store my personal infos on their servers by not checking the option to save the infos on their servers. And I use a credit card that's have a low limit to buy on line. Like I said, I'm not trying to scare anybody, I do buy on line quite a bit. Simply that being aware is 90 % of the solution to protect yourself. Luckily, the banks and IT people are getting pretty good at dealing with this problem and hackers have more and more work to do to get want theyre looking for.
Using Paypal eliminate a lot of possibilities for the hackers to get too much of your personal infos. Of course Paypal could be hack too, but that very unlikly. But even big companies like yahoos got successfully attack. So it's always a possibility.
I worked 25 years in IT, and 10 of those years for a big financial institution. I was working in the credit card and payment solution departement (debit card, credit card, Smart phone payment solution, etc.), and worked closely with the fraud departement's people. It can get very annoying if your infos fall into wrong hands. Most of those hackers are amateurs, no big deal, they get caught, but some are pretty heavy weight. Anyway, I'm not writing this to scare anybody, but it happens.
I use Paypal everywhere on line, and if I have to use my credit card, I dont let the web site store my personal infos on their servers by not checking the option to save the infos on their servers. And I use a credit card that's have a low limit to buy on line. Like I said, I'm not trying to scare anybody, I do buy on line quite a bit. Simply that being aware is 90 % of the solution to protect yourself. Luckily, the banks and IT people are getting pretty good at dealing with this problem and hackers have more and more work to do to get want theyre looking for.
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PCI-DSS compliance is mandatory and failiure to pass the annual check will means a business won't be able to accept online card payments until they can prove their back office system passes.
What is PCI DSS?
PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, and is a worldwide security standard intended to improve the security of card data. It applies to all businesses that store, transmit and process cardholder data. PCI DSS can be divided into 12 requirements, which in turn can be divided into 250 controls. PCI compliance means that your business adheres to the requirements in PCI DSS.
Paypal is used by smaller businesses especially because the customers financial data is stored by Paypal so even if the businesses system was hacked, the data would be of limited value.
Exactly, those servers are getting more and more secure againts frontal attack. Most of the time now, hackers will use social enginering to get infos. 15 years ago it wasn't so. During the 10 years I worked with that institution, I've seen a lot of holes being pluged and a lot of practices being improve following the PCI norms. The institution I worked for had to rethink it's whole IT structure and it's practices to comply with these new norms. That was a pretty deep restructuration. At the same time, I know of a bank getting hack on one of their servers that wasn't up to date, and the hackers were using it to send spam. Crazy isn't it? Using a bank server to spam the world. I guess that server wan't use to store personal infos. I'm retired now since 2018, so I guess it's even better now.
Keep in mind that when you use your card in a store they run it and store it, basically.... online. Heck stores like Home Depot link your credit card used for online purchases to instore sales so they know exactly who you are and what you buy in store even without a rewards membership type thing.
Freeze your credit reports and maybe get identity theft insurance.
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This why Paypal is good - they don't divulge any of your financial data to anyone and their buyer protection is pretty good and has a 6month time limit for claims, not just the usual 30 or 60 days.
The only problem is they are very expensive on Ali but they do have them. I’ve been getting tubes from Ukraine without any issues but if you want stuff like Tung Sol it’s hard to find in Ukraine. Tubes like 6n6, 6n1p, etc are all available at the normal prices on the auction site still.
I'm glad to say that I can stand corrected! On 2/1/2023 I ordered five relatively cheap 6E1P indicator tubes from an Ukrainian seller via epay. Right now, i. e. after just eleven days, I received them carefully packaged. It's a very good feeling that I could support someone in the Ukraine a little bit.
Will test the tubes this afternoon.
Best regards!
Ukranians are tough as nails, even when this damn war looked far more desperate they managed to ship tubes by rerouting their postal routes through Poland. Enjoy your tubes 🙂