Clearing your SSL cache is probably useful if you are using a public computer, like at the public library, or if you have a hacker living in the house with you. It's really a waste of time and totally unnecessary though if you're using your own computer at home. About the only way anyone could get any usable information from your SSL settings is if you weren't careful about where you browse, weren't running any kind of malware protection, and aren't running behind any kind of firewall.
Your SSL certificate doesn't contain any financial information -- all it does is handle the encryption of secure transactions and lets the server (store) you're talking to know that it's still talking to the same computer it was 10 milliseconds ago.
What you need to be concerned about is that you only do business with businesses that have valid SSL certificates, and that encrypt all financial transactions so that your transaction, and your financial information can't be hijacked along the way.
The way to do that is to first make sure that if you're on a webstore, when you get to the checkout phase the url's being used start with https, not http. The s there means you are involved in a secure session and your communications with the server are being encrypted.
You should also look for a security logo on the home page someplace, like Symantec, Comodo, Geotrust or other. If you have any doubts about the store you can check with the certificate issuer, and they should be able to tell you if the business is legit. Legitimate businesses have to go through extensive checks, including providing their business licenses, financial records, etc in order to get a qualified security certificate. In the case of our store we had to supply lots of information and be double and triple checked four ways from Sunday before they'd issue us our security certificate, for which we have to pay hundreds of dollars a year.
If you want to check a stores SSL certificate, there's an easy way to do it. Go to
http://www.gogetssl.com/check-ssl-installation/ and put in the name of the url, like
www.quilt-kits-online.com or somesuch. This tool will give you back output showing the validity of the SSL certificate and who it's registered to. Then you just make sure it's registered to the same url as that which you're shopping on.
Being careful about where you shop and who you disclose your cc numbers to is 90% of being safe with online transactions. And not falling for phishing scams is most of the rest of it.
One thing I would be careful about is leaving your cc info in a store to make it convenient to shop the next time. There are very few places I'd do this, and I'd never do it in an online fabric store or other shopping venue, except the largest, like Amazon, that are top flight in terms of their data security. For instance, lots of people have left CC info at Connecting Threads website, and that site was recently hacked and thousands of CC's stolen.
Any small online merchant with any brains will refuse to store customers' financial information on their systems. The cost to protect it properly is very high. Also, if you call a store and order something over the phone, you should always ask the merchant how he intends to handle your cc number.
The correct answer is that it is entered directly into their merchant services system or if written down it must be immediately shredded after being entered. Under no circumstances should the merchant be storing your cc numbers in a file, etc.
You should also never ever send a merchant your cc info in an email, or a "contact us" form as anyone could see those.
With secure transactions, like I described above, you are really more secure ordering online using a secure shopping cart than you are calling in an order by phone.
Hope this advice from one who is on the other end helps you to be more safe online!
