1y ago

Do you use virtual credit cards?

I came across privacy.com, a service that generates virtual credit cards, like aliases for your real credit card that can be paused or discarded at any moment.

My own credit card company has this feature. But it requires a browser plugin that so obviously is there to track my spending habits, so I've not wanted to consider it. Privacy.com looks like a great alternative.

But is it even worth it? It may be a hastle, but I can also cancel my actual credit card at any moment and they will send me a new number immediately and a card a few days later. From a privacy prospective, how much can a company use my credit card credentials to track me? Maybe a third-party virtual card provider even masks my own purchases so not even my credit card company knows? Not sure about that one.

Please share if you use one, who its with, and if its worth it.

42 comments

I don’t think your CC company needs a browser plugin to track your spending habits, since they are, y’know, making the payments for you… They already have all the info they need on your spending habits. Heck, my bank even gives me a neat budget overview of how I spend my money and where.

Idea sounds neat, but in my opinion the less people have your information the better. Seems like just another opportunity for a company to get hacked and loose all your information.
- But this does the number of companies that have your information. If you use a privacy.com card at two online stores, that's one company that had your info instead of two.
- "Hacked", people use this term way too often. If I create a card for Wingstop through Privacy, it's locked to that merchant. So nobody can use it on Amazon or anywhere else, not even Privacy themselves! This is in addition to cards easily being created or deleted instantly.
  the less people have your information the better.
  Yes, that's the entire point. Privacy has my payment info to complete transactions, just like any merchant would. But now, I never again have to provide my real name, email, phone number, or address, no matter who I purchase from online. I've "signed up" to local restaurants with 123 Fake Street and the transaction goes through...
- In my opinion it’s a needless extra step. I have had my card number compromised before and it was very little hassle to get a new card and my out of pocket was $0. Debit cards would be a completely different discussion however.
- in my opinion the less people have your information the better.
  Yeah that's kinda the point...

I use privacy.com all the time and it's great. Their virtual cards can only be charged by a single vendor so if anyone else tries to send it a charge, it fails. A small rural service firm I use has a clear and ongoing data breach. Every month or two the virtual card I have with them starts being charged by thieves. The charges always fail because they aren't the originally assigned vendor. I used to replace the virtual card at the vendor after every breach but it's constant so I just let Privacy block the unauthorized charges.
Another feature I use is the fact that you can use any name and address for the card you want.

Been using it for a few years but recently they have been requiring way more info than i feel comfortable giving out so dont use them much anymore. It used to work like an online wallet that you just deposit money into with no need to input your personal information which to me fit just fine with the “privacy.com” namesake but now you have to kyc all of your info including SS number which im not a fan of. Dont see the benefit if there really is no privacy anymore. Using it for temp cards for trials and such that are easy to cancel sure but not much more than that.
- This. If I'm required to give up all my personal info I might as well get some cash back and all the other CC benefits.

I mostly use privacy.com for trials that I don't want to have to worry about cancelling later. It's also handy that privacy.com cards will allow you to put whatever you want as your billing address (for example, purchasing digital goods and setting your location to one that doesn't have sales tax).
- Will this get me trouble?
  
  I use Privacy and no, why would it? You're allowed to purchase goods and services with legal tender. You aren't legally obligated to give any of them your personal information.
  
  Using it for trials? No. Using it to skirt taxes? Doubtful, but possible. If you stiff the state $6 on an x-box game, noones going to notice. Short them a couple thousand and they might.

My bank's VISA functionality on my bankingcard not only requires a 2FA confirmation with a cardreader digipass every payment, but apparently also gives back an 'expired' answer when it gets checked after payment for 'saving it for future purchases/subscriptions', so most sites won't and the ones that do have me removing and readding it everytime I want to pay... A bit of a hassle, yes, but it does prevent rogue companies from taking anything I'm not acknowledging behind my back and made the use of proxy-cc's obsolete. It'll just add another technical step through another service, which is just one extra thing that can bug out, while still having to do the digipass thing everytime anyway (or even remove and readd it there if it's not able to save my card either.) 😅
- What bank offers this?
  
  BNP Paribas Fortis. They're the first to replace 'Maestro' (by Mastercard but mainly only accepted in and close by Belgium) with the new VISA alternative of it, giving me a cardnumber which is also a working visa number and enabling me to use it on any website like a credit card...

I used to have privacy.com , they will ask for really personal details such as SSN and Government issue ID. When I created an account back when it was really new they just ask you for email and password and the bank account number and routing after they started asking for more private information I decided to quit. Virtual credit cards of this nature are to be able to easily block and delete credit cards if gets leaked not really for protecting your privacy because it is tied to your bank account. I will prefer to use my own bank and credit card company virtual cards because they already have all my info to be honest.

In Portugal, pretty much everyone has access to this functionality. I think the functionality is amazing, I use it very often. The fact the cards only work once and have a spending limit really gives me a sense of security.
Revolut also has this functionality, I use it for purchases in foreign currency.
Never heard of privacy.com, I'm already set with the services that provide this functionality. I can't say if the service is good or not, but the practice of creating virtual credit cards is invaluable.

I use my card provider's version of this, Capital One. I've used privacy.com once too but I figured I may as well limit the amount of information that goes out.
I'm not sure that it's possible for you to... Mask your purchases? The option is more the ability to set end-dates - a one week subscription is only one week and will never renew, etc, and of course to prevent them from having your actual card details.
Either way, realistically you'd want to look into the ownership of these services - Eno, Privacy, etc and decide from there if it's worth it to you.

Can I use it from EU?
- Check out wise.com. I use them for client payments on occasion but they have virtual cards that you load up and use like a real Visa. You can set limits, even by vendors.
  
  If you're in the EU, Revolut is better than Wise because they have one-time-use virtual cards. As soon as the transaction is made, the number can't be used again.
- Sadly no. The cards are american and there is some thing that I forgot the name and exact function of, which allows you to pay with american cards inside the EU, however that requires id, which privacy.com does not do.
- On the UE I use Revolut. It has this feature of virtual cards, and also it's able to create a temporary card for only one use.

Would be nice if it was available worldwide. I have no options for virtual credit cards like that in my country. I've been using banking alot for daily transactions but will probably switch back to carrying cash again for smaller things.

I don't as there is a service called blik in my country which seems private enough and is way more hassle free to use. It generates one time use codes for payment and requires user confirmation for each payment. Not sure how private it is on the back end, but it pretty much gets rid of the same risks virtual credit cards target. It's also pretty well supported, both by banks and payment processors.
Again not sure how private it is on the back end, but, at least for me, its more user friendly than using a credit card so I cant be bothered.
Edit: the privacy policy for both blik and their website (I think?) is 13 pages, 9 of which give a detailed description of how they use cookies. Also the privacy regulations here are quite strict and they actually follow them, so you can not opt into cookies with as much effort as it takes to opt in. It is also a service made by banks, so I feel its quite trust wordy.
Also OP, if the banks web extention doesn't require access to all websites, it probably won't track you, at least more than your bank tracks you already.
- Wow 2fa on credit card purchases is a brilliant idea. And yeah I should probably look a little closer at my bank's extension and see if its really the threat I think it is.
  
  BTW, normal online credit/debit card purchases can require 2fa. I got automatically enrolled, but I'm not about people who don't use the mobile app, but SMS 2fa may be used as a fallback :/

My bank provides those. They are generated for each physical card you own, inheriting its limits and blocking status. Each of those cards can be used for one payment. Unfortunately, there is no way to block them before making that one payment after you generate it.

I use privacy.com for free trials when I have no intention of continuing with the service after the trial ends. I still manually close the account but I use a Privacy card just in case they try to charge me anyway.

I know this is old, but it still comes up in search so it's worth it to point out the Privacy website is extremely buggy and their support non existent. Other issues aside, the service is almost literally unusable because of that.
- I use my exist credit card company, now. I still get my x% cash back. And the credit card company arent the people Im trying to hide from in this case. Thanks for letting me know.

I use Privacy on a rare basis. It doesn't require a browser plugin, you can just log into their site and copy/paste the information.
It is worth it for me as I use it to sign up for "free" trials that require credit cards and then I don't have to worry about getting charged.
A note about credit cards, if you have a history of payments with a company, that company can ask the issuer for an updated number after you get a new card number. If it works then they just store the updated number and keep up the subscription.

If you don't want to be tracked for a digital purchase, you should be using Monero/fiat converted from Monero (usually gift cards/shop cards/speciality cards)

No, I use monero. Much more secure

I think cash will always be better
- If I could send cash to companies from other continents for their goods/services I would do so but that isn't a thing sooooo... Credit cards it is.
  Seems like kind of a weird take to me. If I can create a reasonable privacy barrier with a service like privacy.com (not saying they are good or otherwise) then I have no problems with using a card. You can't buy everything with cash.

How do you think they can provide their service free of charge? It's because you are the product, and they likely track your own spending habits. However, I still use them occasionally if I ever want to sign up for a free trial or something similar, because you can put an all-time limit on each card. If my bank offered that feature though, I would just use it instead because my bank (a local credit union) would never track my data.
- Pretty sure they make money by collecting credit card fees. You are essentially giving up points/rewards in exchange for an unlimited supply credit cards which, as you mentioned, has a valid use in certain situations.
  
  Yep.
  How does Privacy make money?
  Privacy, like other card companies, collects transaction fees called interchange from merchants. We don't, and will never, sell our customers' data.

42 comments