Instant Virtual Credit Cards: Optimal Solution or Myth?

Nowadays, more and more people encounter situations which involve prompt online purchasing a credit card. Hopefully, many banks and issuing entities have understood the customers' need to get a rapid and reliable means of electronic payments and today they offer their clients diverse virtual solutions.

Virtual Credit Card Numbers

Instant credit cards or instant card numbers (not to be confused with credit card number generators) which cardholders may generate using issuers' website or app tools seem to be one of the most significant alternatives. If you are a client of, let's say, Capital One or Bank of America, they may give you the possibility to create a unique virtual card number upon approval which will be the substitute of real card data and allow you to purchase at specific merchants. Others, like American Express (Amex), provide a special card number at checkout at a number of selected vendors and nowhere else. Some instant virtual credit card numbers (eg., those by Chase Pay or Wells Fargo Wallet) work well not only with online services but can also be used in-person or in-store. Such big card networks as Visa and Mastercard have made available their own services known as Visa Checkout and Masterpass which operate with cards from any network and provide clients with a unique token or number for each merchant. It should be noted here that they also have their participating merchants. In sum, this kind of service is generally free of charge and, actually, expedient since while creating singular virtual card data (a number, an expiration date, a security code) for a specific vendor, we obtain an additional security layer in all circumstances and protect our real card from fraudulence.

What does it give?

• Extra safety at any transactions on-line and fraud prevention.

• The possibility to set expense limits on each generated virtual card which might be quite attractive especially if you plan to give it to your children.

What are benefits?

• You can usually get one very fast especially if you are already the customer of a bank providing such a service or you hold an appropriate Visa, Mastercard or Amex bankcard.

• Normally, this option is totally for free.

What are drawbacks?

• This is not accessible to everyone: if you are not the resident of the country where such facilities are available (mostly in the US, Canada and Western Europe) or you hold an inappropriate type of card, you are not likely to make use of this service.

• Lack of anonymity: note that only your real card data are masked but you true name is not concealed, and since all one-time card numbers are linked to your bank account, it does not seem so much difficult to associate your transactions with you.

Summary

It makes sense to seek this kind of service if you need to additionally protect yourself against data theft or, while already having a suitable credit card issued in a country where such servicing exists, you want to set expense limits on its virtual substitute.

Online Wallets

There is quite a range of payment facilities allowing you to quickly get a prepaid virtual debit card on-line. They are arranged on the principal of web-based or mobile digital wallets where you are expected to register on the site, add funds to your account and instantly buy a virtual prepaid card. The geography of such services is pretty wide: many of them are intended for the US, Europe, India and some are even international. The largest and most well-known among them, such as Skrill, Freecharge, EcoPayz, Privacy.com, and some others, have limitations on countries and their residents they accept to deal with and also quite strict restrictions on account replenishment methods (from a personal bank account, a bankcard or PayPal). Though, there are services that have a wider variety of wallet reload options encompassing even crypto-facilitated transfers enabling cryptocurrency conversion (e.g., bitcoin). But to be fair, reloading the wallet with bitcoin is pretty costly owing to high commission fees.

All these services have one thing in common: no anonymous registration is admitted and mandatory identity verification is required when registering. In fact, they approach anonymity in different ways and most of them give the opportunity to use virtual cards only in the person's true name. Nonetheless, we may still encounter online wallets that allow you to conceal not just the number of your real card but also your real name. Yet, remember that such anonymity appear to be mere conventionality as although the beneficiary does not see your actual name at the moment when you pay, your account binds all your bankcards issued and associating payments from them with you doesn't seems a hard task if needed. Besides, these virtual cards do not tolerate PayPal (or some other) verification on an assumed name.

What does it give?

• Extra safety at any transactions on-line and fraud prevention.

• The possibility to set expense limits on each generated virtual card which might be quite attractive especially if you plan to give it to your children.

• A higher degree of anonymity. Some services make it possible to register a virtual card under a fictitious name (an alias).

What are benefits?

• You can usually get such cards quite fast especially if you have a verified account. If not, verifying procedure may take from a few hours to several days depending on the service and the availability of all documents required for your identification.

• Appealing cost. Online wallets are not expensive at maintenance.

• More opportunities to manage your funds and more reload options.

What are drawbacks?

• This is not accessible to everyone. As usual, citizens of North America and Western Europe are in a privileged situation for they may enjoy the vast majority of payment facilities existing nowadays while other countries settle for a much more modest choice.

• The lack of full anonymity. You can mask your real card data and sometimes your true name, though your transactions are identifiable due to the compulsory account verification and cardsholder's account association

Summary

Using online wallet payment services seems sensible if you need a greater degree of anonymity or more flexibility in adding funds. Mandatory verification and related delays might represent an obstacle to many of those who intend to buy a virtual card.

Ezzocard Virtual Prepaid Cards

The fastest and easiest solution to get an instant virtual card is Ezzocard. You only need to hold cryptocurrency or Perfect Money. Your card is made immediately available right after your money or a require number of confirmations from cryptonetwork are received. Because of AVS (Address Verification System) you can register your universal prepaid bankcard in any name and any existing address i.e you can use your Ezzocard cards absolutely anonymously. They are issued by banks in the US and Canada and accepted worldwide inter alia for verification purposes in many payment systems including PayPal.