Is using my credit card online safe?

Your online security is important to the Department of Real Estate. That is why we are committed to keeping your personal information (including your credit card number) secure and confidential.

eLicensing is hosted on a secure Web server whose identity is certified by VeriSign, an industry leader in Web site trust services. When you logon to eLicensing, your username and password are sent over the Internet from your computer to ours using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology.  SSL encrypts your personal information before it leaves your computer, ensuring that no one else can read it.

Once you have signed in, you can check that your eLicensing session is secure in two ways:

• Look for the small padlock icon located in either the lower right- or left-hand corner of your browser window.  A closed or locked padlock indicates a secure connection.
  
  
  (Internet Explorer)    or   (Netscape)
  
 
• Look for the letters "https://" at the beginning of the Web site address. The "s" stands for secure.

For your protection, DRE neither keeps credit card information on file nor processes online payments itself.  To pay for an online transaction, you temporarily leave eLicensing for a secure payment processing site hosted by VeriSign.  When you enter your credit card information, it, too, is encrypted by SSL technology to ensure it can't be read by others.  Once your payment has been approved, you are returned to eLicensing for completion of your session.

From start to finish, all of your eLicensing transactions are performed in a secure environment, so that you don't have to worry about your credit card information being intercepted by others.