Virtual Credit Card

Virtual credit card numbers - what are they? Known as Checked Payments Numbers, virtual credit card numbers are restricted or restricted credit or debit card numbers that can be used instead of your physical card numbers when you make purchases on-line. You' re linked to your bankroll and look exactly like genuine card numbers - the same number of numbers as the long number on the front of your card, plus the expiration date and three-digit unique number.

In order to obtain a virtual credit card number to make an on-line purchase, you must usually login to your credit card and use a utility that will generate a new number for you. There are only a few vendors that have virtual credit card numbers in place, and among those that do, there are several different functions; some allow you to set a spend boundary for the number, for example, while others only allow the use of a number at a particular merchant.

The use of a virtual credit or debit card number means that the merchant processes the amount of numbers that are temporarily stored and not the numbers that are actually stored, thus avoiding malicious pages from capturing your card data. When you shop on lesser-known Web sites, you should be assured that your credit card information would not have ended up in the wrong hands if the site had turned out to be illegitimate.

Is this really going to stop the card scam? Virtually credit card numbers are no replacement for maintaining the security of your credit card information, as they would not stop you from being compromised by so-called imitation frauds, in which scammers force users to surrender card information by claiming to be a known company, financial institution or other organization.

You wouldn't prevent credit card information from getting into the hands of delinquents through Phishing or using certain types of software, such as banking products, which give credit card information to your customers. In theory, you are still at high risk of cheating if you do not use a different virtual card number every year. If you use the same number more than once, a delinquent could use the virtual number before it expires.

The need for one-time numbers means that using a virtual credit card number is much less comfortable from the customer's point of view; instead of storing your card information in on-line buying account, it has to be entered every multiple times by hand. But if you were to face credit card scams over your card, you would at least not have to go through all your on-line buying account and update the detail.

After all, virtual credit card should not have everyday operational effects for small merchants but what they show is that consumers are becoming more and more worried about scams on-line. If you do everything in your power to calm them down - for example, with a safe payments system - and make sure your site looks professionally and trustworthily - it will help boost your customers' trust in you.