The Price of Drugs...What Gives!

IT'S CALLED SHOPPING? PRICE COMPARISON?
New Haven - I, too, am weary from going place to place - including on line - for EVERYTHING. Of course perscription drugs have one of the largest price variances ... aside from new cars and large appliances. Equal quality clothing? Gosh, I don't know. Maybe it's with EVERYTHING.

Back to the drugs. You just have to shop and shop ... until you drop. NOT buying, but looking for the best price. A member of our family was paying $132 for a perscription for months and months that he now buys on line for $56!!! And, no, not the generic either. Same brand. I think it's called "whatever the traffic will bear." There are no price controls in effect; hence the difference. That's true on all merchandise I believe. Or, there are price controls on ... what?

We don't have a chance, but the ball is in our corner ... if we have the time and energy to persevere. GOOD WISHES! Charli

Charli:

I agree. Dorugstore.com is usually cheaper than either CVS or Walgreens.

Only thing is you have to use a credit card and then you run the risk of having your number stolen.

New Haven- I think that most of us have 128 bit encryption on our computers, or should have. To me, it is more dangerous to hand your credit card to a waiter in a restaurant, than it is to send it over the internet. IMO it is safe to order by credit card from established companies.

I don't think that I would order something from some cockamamie company on the internet though!

Drugstore.com has not come up with the cheaper prices for us. We use at least three different drugstores. A price can be better on one perscription but not another. CVS on-line is the one with the $56 price vs $132 that I wrote about above. However, on some of the other family perscriptions CVS is higher: one is $103 at CVS vs $73 elsewhere!!! We order anywhere it's the cheapest. But ... be sure to ask about shipping costs. Charli

New Haven, I agree with Phoenix ... credit-card cyber-commerce with reputable e-tailers is quite secure. No financial transaction is entirely without risk, but credit-card number theft is far more likely when dealing face-to-face with humans than when done on-line WITH REPUTABLE FIRMS. Bear in mind that fly-by-nights depend on gullibility whether they peddle their wares from the back of a beat-up van or from a website which makes improbable claims.
And pay careful attention to "Shipping and Handling" costs.



timber

Timber:

Early in December, someone used my credit card number to order a very expensive item and wanted it shipped to Asia. The credit card company ( THANK GOD!) contacted me and stopped the order. I use drugstore.com, amazon.com and Barnes&Nobel.com with that credit card. I also use it to register for college courses on line.

Besides that, I have used it for the grocery store.

I'm guessing that it must have been the grocery/pharmacy store or the registration for the college course online.

What do you think? Interesting, the card used is one that I rarely use.


Forgot to add, the card was never lost, stolen or used by anyone else.

NH, while the possibility of cybertheft is greater than nil, I would tend to attribute your experience to a selectiom from among the options you presented which were not "HTTPS" websites. That would exclude Amazon, B&N, and drugstore.com. I don't know about the college.



timber

New Haven- Interesting point about the phone call. My husband and I were on a Caribbean cruise a couple of years ago and he bought me a rather expensive piece of jewelry on one of the islands. When we returned home, we had a call from our credit card company to verify that the purchase was indeed made by us.

I think that the credit card companies are becoming more vigilant when it comes to purchases that seem out of the norm for a particular customer, especially when it entails purchases outside of the United States. A person certainly can't let their guard down because of it, but it IS a comfort to know that the credit card companies are checking!

New Haven - Interesting points about the theft of your credit card. We, too, have been wary about buying on-line. We use only one card for those purchases and not for anything else. When it comes to the prescriptions ... got my fingers on the right keys this time! ... we feel that the savings are too great not to buy them from on-line vendors. What else can we do, but watch our backs as best we can. We have some close acquaintances who are computer systems engineers big time. They say, "DON'T put your credit card numbers on the Web." Isn't there a security of $50 max for erroneous charges on most credit cards? And no charge on a few?

Charli, the Cardholder Liability for Unautorized Use conditions are part of the cardholder agreement. In most cases, a vigilant consumer may be assured of small or no cash loss from the use of a stolen or pirated credit card. It is importand to have current informqtion regarding the activity of any credit card. If you use on-line account maintainence, whether bank or Credit Card Provider, you can check the status of your accounts with a few keystrokes. Its easy enough that it could be done daily, if you were realy paranoid or commonly moved large amounts around. An alert cardholder can often spot and report a problem well before the lender notices it. Prompt reporting of loss will go a long way toward minimizing the impact of that loss.

There is risk in any credit transaction. However, Secure Websites such as those operated by well known, high-volume e-tailers, are about as secure as any credit transaction can be.. A Secure Website's URL will always begin "HTTPS" Note the "S". If you don't see that, don't even think anout using your card. If you do see it, check the site's terms and conditions for creditcard purchases. If that satisfies you, and the site is a "Secure" site run by a hi-profile vendor, odds are you'll be OK. You are somewhat more likely to be robbed in person by an armed person or persons than remotely via keyboard



timber

What some folks will do, in anticipation of possible problems, is get a credit card that purposely has a small line of credit, say $250-. They then use that card for online shopping.

That's what I did. However, the thief didn't know the limits of the credit card. I also keep all of my receipts of the transactions, so I know where I've been.

One point to remember is that if you write your credit card number on your check, when you pay your bill, the clerks in the bank can see it.