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.
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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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.
No, I use monero. Much more secure
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)
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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…
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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?
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.
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.
Can I use it from EU?
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.
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.
Yeah Wise has the same. I’m sure at this point they offer feature parity and it’s about quality of service. Wise has been good. Probably the least invasive. Bill.com was atrocious! Promises of removing my data and they are emailing me years later.
Wise does not have the same. Here’s my EU card page: https://i.imgur.com/yvrUSvq.png
They offer virtual cards, but not one-time-use cards. It’s a big difference in safety.
In fact, apart from just finding out about privacy.com (only available in the US), I’m not aware of anybody except Revolut who offers one-time-use cards.
e: If you know how to do it with Wise, please let me know. (Virtual cards which can be deleted after use are not the same as one-time cards.)
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.
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.
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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.