Does anybody use a Virtual Credit Card?

Who issued it?

What fees are involved?

Have you ever had a problem with it?

How about returns or refunds?

What are virtual credit cards? Maybe ApplePay, linked to a physical credit card?

Interesting concept. I had to google it to learn. I've never had any problems disputing charges and a couple of times, I was alerted by my card company before I was aware.

One time, someone who said they were from AmEx called and asked, "Do you have your AmEx card with you?" I got suspicious and demanded to know who they are. She explained but repeated her question whether I have my card. I said, "Of course, I do" and proceeded to pull out the card from my wallet except it wasn't there. It got stolen from a job employment drug screening I just came from.

link

quote:

What Are the Drawbacks of Using a Disposable Card Number?
There are some situations in which using a virtual number could backfire. If you have to return something, for example, a retailer might require the refund be placed on the same account number that was used to make a purchase. If your disposable card number has already expired, you may be forced to get store credit instead.

If a merchant requires verification of your account information, you could run into snags as well. Say you used a disposable card number to make an online reservation for a rental car or hotel room. The company may require users to pay with the same card used to make the reservation—but if the balance on the virtual card number was already used, you could encounter hassles in verifying that your actual card is the same account as the virtual card number.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
What are virtual credit cards? Maybe ApplePay, linked to a physical credit card?

The cocnept is vaguely similar to Apple Pay.

A few credit card issuers do this. I believe, not positive, that American Express offers this with some of their cards. I think that Citi offers it with some cards, and I have heard that Capital One will start doing it with some cards.

The deal is, a virtual credit card number is generated. This number is tied to your actual card, but the virtual number can be restricted. You might be able to tie it to a specific merchant -- for example, sgammo.com. Any attempt to use this virtual number at a merchant other than sgammo would be rejected. So, if sgammo's website were to be hacked and your credit card information stolen, it could not be used elsewhere.

Or a virtual card number could be generated with a restriction as to the number of times it could be used. Maybe five transactions, or even one transaction. This could be useful if you do business with a vendor that insists on auto-pay for your account, maybe something like cell phone service, or a similar recurring expense. If you do not want to give that vendor carte blanche to charge your card, you could generate a one-time card number. Any additional attempts to use that number would be rejected. If you want to pay the next month's bill, just generate another single use card number and update your billing information with that vendor. For subsequent months just rinse and repeat.

I see two strong advantages to virtual credit cards: first, to prevent theft and fraudulent charges, and second, to exert a measure of control for vendors that insist on auto-pay.

I also see a possible problem: if the virtual card number just exists for one transaction, you buy something, then want to return it, how does the return credit get posted to a card number that no longer exists? The credit card issuer's software might be smart enough to handle this, I don't know.

Am looking into similar things. I think what V-Tail may be looking for is a credit card that is more like a reloadable gift card, where you do NOT have to submit to a credit check, do not have to provide your SSN/real address to open.

I think Privacy.com may be worth taking a look at; I'm currently looking at these blogs to see if there are better/even more anonymous options out there:

https://greycoder.com/vanilla-...onymous-credit-card/

https://www.privacyworld.com/howtopay.html

quote:

Originally posted by Mech:
Am looking into similar things. I think what V-Tail may be looking for is a credit card that is more like a reloadable gift card

No, that's not it. I am referring to a very standard credit card with the ability to generate virtual credit card numbers that are linked to the actual card, but that can have restrictions specified in terms of being tied to a single merchant, or the number of transactions that can be done with the card before it expires. I am not looking for anonymity, I am looking for protection against fraudulent use.

We have had a number of threads in the rant section about people's card numbers being used by thieves. A guy who works with me just had many thousands of dollars charged to his card for airline tickets that he knew nothing about. This sort of thing could be controlled by using a virtual card.

Ah okay, nevermind, I had misinterpreted your original post, but will be interested to see what options are presented!

In reading privacy.com/s FAQ, there's this, maybe it's more to your liking?

"Regular Cards

Let’s say you’d like to purchase something at a trusted merchant who you shop with frequently. We recommend that you use a regular Privacy card (the type of card created by default when you try to create a card). If you’d like an added measure of security, you can enable a transaction limit, which allows you to set an upper limit on the amount of money that can be spent using that card. These limits can be set on a per transaction, per month, per year, or total basis.



Single-Use Cards

Now imagine another scenario: you’re shopping with a merchant you don’t trust, and who you’re unlikely to return to the in the future. This would be a good time to create a single-use card. A single-use card is a card that will be closed upon completion of the first transaction and cannot be used again. The merchant won’t have access to working payment information after your first transaction goes through, so you can sleep soundly at night."

https://privacy.com/faq

Citi offers this and I looked into it.

My specific requirements included:

• I can create virtual card numbers, tied directly to my primary account.
  
• I would use these cards specifically for my recurring charges like cell phone, my web server monthly payments, Google domain payments, Zwift, Stamps.com, Netflix, Amazon, Cable bill, EZPass, Adobe...
  
• I could create multiple virtual numbers, but I think I wanted to use a few and spread them out a bit?
  
• There would be no restrictions to the amounts charged, as long as the total did not exceed the limit on my account.

The goal would be that when and if my card is compromised, I would not have to go through and change all of the credit card numbers for all of those companies. That's a nightmare for me, and it happened twice within six months.

Well, the idea is great, but they could not accommodate. These virtual cards are designed more for "one time" online transactions when you buy something online and you're not really comfortable with the site you're buying from. You're required to set the limit for the card.

At the time I was looking at it, it did not make sense to me due to the limits I'd have to set for each. (My month charges would vary each month, so it would not work for me.) It may have changed by now?

I have used this with Citi for many years now, maybe 15 or so, with no significant issues. I use it for all internet or phone orders, which allows me to not give my real number to anyone.

The way it works is you login to your CC account, go to the Virtual link, specify an amount and a length of time (expiration date). It then generates a CC number with 3 digit security code and an expiration date. Shortest time you can specify is two months. I have never tried to use one number for two vendors. I always get a separate number for each vendor. The vendor can make multiple charges on it, that's pretty common with an Amazon order in particular when it's split among a couple of different vendors, but all sold through Amazon. I typically close the number manually when I get the product and know I won't be returning anything.

There is no fee. Occasionally it seems that a number won't be accepted by a vendor. I get another number and it works. This has only happened a couple of times though. One time I think someone tried to use a virtual number after I closed it, I got a fraud alert phone call, they canceled my card and issued a new card. I'm not sure why that had to happen since the number was closed, but it did.

Josey is doing exactly what I want. Unfortunately, this feature with Citi only exists for some of their cards, not for all of them.

My Citi VISA is the Costco card, which currently does not offer this feature.

Maybe if I'm patient and wait -- the Costco Citi VISA did not originally offer Apple Pay, but they added that, so maybe they'll get around to adding the Virtual Card feature.

Question for Josey: Did you ever do a one-time transaction with a virtual card and then have to return the purchase? How did this work out? Was the system smart enough to credit the refund back to your main card number?

Yeah, I remember many years ago that the Virtual Number feature was not for all cards, for whatever reason. My card has a cash back feature and the Virtual Number feature. It's not linked to some specific store like Costco, Cabelas, Bass Pro, etc. It's just a generic Mastercard.

I don't return things very often at all. I hate returns, so I make pretty sure it's what I want before I order. But I think the few returns I have done went through okay. I don't remember any issues. It used to be that the number was only good for 30 days, so you didn't have much time. Now the minimum time is 2 months, so that should give plenty of time to return things.