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.
Can I use it from EU?
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.
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.