Vacation Rates

Just having received the bill for a credit card I haven’t used since receiving it several months ago, imagine my surprise to see that I had made some purchases. Now, bear in mind that this card has been in my wallet since I received it seven months ago and still has the activation sticker on it. Yet, I managed to make online purchases of a train ticket in Washington DC, sign up for a monthly MLM program and purchase another travel ticket on hotwire. The card was received seven months ago and the charges only started in November. Is there any way this could have been prevented?

Throw away credit card numbers can be of some use here but probably wouldn’t have prevented the above from happening as somehow someone got my name and actual credit card number. But for online shopping protection using virtual credit cards may be helpful – or they may lead us to a false sense of security. Just because I use a virtual card only once doesn’t mean someone can’t get the real information to use for their benefit.

Just like using a disposable camera instead of your expensive camera while you are traveling to protect from loss or damage, you can use a virtual card to prevent loss when purchasing online. With a virtual credit card number, the number is discarded after one use.

With widespread credit card fraud nobody is surprised when it happens and the credit card companies are constantly looking for a way to prevent losses due to fraud. The method must not inconvenience their customer when it comes to using the account for purchases either online or on person yet it must also protect consumer information. Their hope is that virtual card numbers can solve this problem for them and their customers.

While virtual cards are used to purchase online in the same manner regular cards are, they are temporary numbers. These numbers are issued as a short term replacement of you true card number for purchases. Your personal information is not transmitted to the vendor and often they are single use numbers and a new number must be generated for subsequent transactions. There are other cases where a virtual number can be used for multiple purchases over a limited time period before it cancels.

Protecting the real number from felonious use is the objective with virtual numbers. Should a computer hacker gain access to credit card data from a secure processing center, your account number would be protected. When they attempted to use your virtual number they would be denied credit.

The expectation is that your card number is safe and secure on some sites during the payment process. There is always the possibility that someone working for the online merchant will sell the information to criminals. This as well would be a criminal act but some people are willing to do anything if the price is high enough and there is no easy way to trace it back to them.

Virtual credit card numbers biggest benefit is from protecting your valuable information online. If such a number is stolen, it is or becomes worthless in a short time. If you make several purchases with your credit card per month you may see a real benefit from using virtual card numbers to assure all your transactions are secure and your information protected.