If you use a credit card for online purchases through payment services such as PayPal or Bill Me Later, you get the same protections as if you paid with your card directly. Federal law entitles you to a credit for returns, damaged goods and missing shipments bought with a credit card. It also limits your liability for fraudulent charges to $50.

But those protections don't apply if you pay from a bank or cash account -- options also offered by PayPal and others. You'll have to haggle with the bank or payment service for redress if the deal turns sour.

	Related articles By the Editors of Consumer Reports (www.consumerreports.org)

Online payment services are convenient. You register just once with each. Then, whenever you buy something from a participating merchant, you merely click on the service's icon and the transaction speeds through. The service pays the merchant by billing your credit card or by dipping into your bank account. For buyers, all the services are free. Beyond that, each one works a little differently.

Auction payment services. To pay for auction winnings or to deal with a small retailer, most likely you'll use PayPal, BidPay or a similar payment service. PayPal bills your credit card or withdraws the money from your bank or out of your PayPal cash account.

Checkout services. Google Checkout is the newest, but such individual retailers as Amazon have long offered express checkout. When you click on an icon, your purchase is billed to your credit card. Google search results now show a shopping cart under a company's name if the retailer participates.

Credit accounts. Bill Me Later instantly checks your creditworthiness after requesting the last four digits of your Social Security number, your address and birth date. The service sends the first bill by mail, but you can pay subsequent bills electronically. As with credit cards, you're subject to late fees and interest charges.

Online payment services promise some protections for bank or cash accounts, but they're not required by law and could change. Bill Me Later says customers aren't responsible for any fraudulent charge. If there's a dispute, PayPal will cover a buyer up to $1,000 if buyer and seller can't reach agreement through its resolution program. (You're out of luck if you bought more than $1,000 worth of stuff.) In a change of policy, the service must now conspicuously disclose to customers with credit card and bank accounts that the latter will be tapped first for purchases. Such disclosure had not been made prior to PayPal's proposed settlement to a class-action lawsuit.

Bill Me Later (bill-me-later.com), Google Checkout (checkout.google.com) and PayPal (paypal.com) are three of the larger players in the online-paying business. All have been vetted for credibility by ConsumerWebWatch, a project of Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. Before signing up for these or any other service, however, heed this advice:

Use a credit card to make payments to the services. You'll have more protection.

Never click on links in e-mail that appear to be from payment services -- especially if it asks for confidential information. And don't reply. If you do, you might become a victim of phishing, a scam designed to cull sensitive data.

Look for a lock icon at the bottom of a company's Web-site page. This indicates the site has been encrypted.

Or, if you're uneasy about sharing your credit-card number with these services, try the Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode programs. With these, you can skip the payment services and use your credit card online with an added password protection. For details, see the companies' Web sites at www.visa.com or www.mastercard.com.