While not precisely the same as a virtual credit card, Apple Pay serves the same purpose, letting you pay without giving the merchant a credit card number.Īre There Any Downsides to Virtual Credit Cards? The biggest negative for virtual credit card numbers is that they only work online. If you manage to get your hands on an Apple Watch or iPhone 6, you'll have the option to use Apple Pay at stores that support it. A similar service called Shop Shield seems to have fallen by the wayside when the company re-invented itself to offer business-oriented password management.
For $5 per month you can upgrade to Premium, which gets you the ability to generate virtual credit card numbers even when your card issuer doesn't have native support. The basic free edition creates disposable email addresses to foil spammers, and includes basic password management. Now What? Boston-based Abine offers a product called MaskMe. My Bank Doesn't Offer Virtual Credit Cards. PayPal's Virtual Debit Card system, which had the added bonus of letting you easily pay with PayPal even on sites that don't support it, ended in 2010. American Express offered "Private Payment" from 2000 to 2004. Discover halted such a service earlier this year when MasterCard bought the company supplying their technology. Where Can't I Get One? A number of other credit issuers have provided virtual credit cards in the past, but no longer. Check with the issuer of your credit card to see whether this service is available. MasterCard owns has its own virtual credit card service, but the issuer can choose whether or not to actually offer the service. Citibank's similar Virtual Account Number service also lets you set a credit limit and expiry date, and it includes an optional Windows-specific application that can automatically fill in credit card details. With ShopSafe you can set a maximum credit limit and configure the card's expiration. Where Can I Get a Virtual Credit Card? Bank of America offers the ShopSafe service to any Visa or MasterCard holder who also uses online banking. The charges appear on your regular bill, but the merchant doesn't have your actual credit card number. To the online merchant, it looks no different from any other credit card. And typically you can set it to expire in anywhere up to a year from its creation date. Depending on the issuer, you may be able to set a maximum charge for the virtual number, further protecting your transaction. What Is a Virtual Credit Card? A virtual credit card number is a randomly-generated card number associated with your actual credit card.