Virtual credit cards supposedly, are electronic versions of the plastic credit card. This is a feature offered by some credit card providers to combat credit card theft or fraud.

How does Virtual Credit Cards Work

Virtual credit cards function as valid, temporary credit card replacement. This is ideally used for online shopping or any online transaction for that matter. The concept is to use a valid credit card number, a CVV and expiration date generated from your original credit card. This will have lesser value and purchasing power compared to the original card but will be automatically linked to your credit card account.

With this feature, the real account information are not transmitted in the internet. Instead, only the temporary account details are sent and/or stored in the online retailer’s files.

Virtual numbers are linked to the account facilitating your physical credit card. For some services, Citibank’s for example, the virtual number cannot be used in place of the physical card if the merchant specifically requests the latter. Both cards will share the same expiry date however, in some cases a temporary number can be generated for a shorter time period.

For some providers a temporary number can be set to continue making recurrent payments for up to a year. Once it expires, a new one needs to be generated if payments to the merchant should continue. For the most part they take seconds to minutes to be generated, and are usually retrieved when checking out.

Registration must be done with the particular company that issues it (often online), and some offer two ways to access the service. Citibank and Discover are two examples that allow customers to choose between a wholly online program, and a downloaded interface. Both options allow number generation, but operate differently in a lot of ways.

How to use a Virtual Credit Card

The initial step would be for you to generate a Virtual Credit Card number. This can be done through online services provided by most credit card providers. To be sure if this feature applies to your credit card, you can consult your local bank or their official website for assistance.

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Generally, there are two options for you to generate your virtual credit card number. One would be to download the software provided by your credit card company, or doing the number generation online. There are some that will allow provide you with a valid credit card number and a corresponding expiration date. Others will also give you a CVV (Card Verification Value) or allow you to fund your newly created virtual credit with a certain dollar value.

When shopping online, you will then use the generated virtual credit card number instead of your original credit card number. This way, you are protected against possible fraud or theft since what are exposed are the details of your virtual credit card, which are supposed to have limited funds or purchasing power.

For persons who want the convenience of shopping online but do not like the idea of merchants having their credit details, a virtual credit card may be better than a conventional one. They allow a unique number to be generated for each transaction, which means the information each merchant gets is specific to him or her. This makes things like identity theft or unauthorized charges a lot more difficult.

Some Examples of Temporary Number Services

1) Bank of America’s ShopSafe

These can be set to expire at any time before or on the physical card’s expiry date. The time period and amount are entered, then ‘create card’ is selected to generate the number. Numbers can be overwhelming so devising a system to keep them organized may be a good idea. ShopSafe is one of the most used options because it is really userfriendly.

2) Citibank’s Virtual Account Numbers

These are valid for 1 to 12 months but cannot exceed the original card’s expiry date. Citibank has a convenient drag and drop feature when using the downloadable version, which can make things run faster and more smoothly.

3) Discover’s Issuer

Unlike the previous two, Issuer’s expiry date is the same as the physical card. The online virtual program is accessible anywhere however, users cannot fill up forms using it. This can be a limitation to some users, and to some extent it is considered to be less user-friendly than some virtual credit card versions.