Credit Card Debt Management

Virtual credit cards are certainly nothing new in the world of online shopping. After all, they’ve been around almost seven years, but they may not have received due attention in the past. Also known as substitute credit card numbers or controlled payment numbers, this technology offers online shoppers a free and highly effective layer of protection against identity theft.

According to the Sound Money Tips blog, MBNA, Citibank, Discover and Paypal all offer this free service to customers. All you have to do is sign up, download the software, and enter your credit card info (viewable only to the customer and the bank).

Some services limit spending to one merchant or venue only. Other services do not place restrictions on spending, but do generate a different “temporary number” with each online purchase. This temporary number is the only thing hackers can see, whether they eavesdrop at the point of purchase or hack into merchant records after the fact.

Many consumers have snubbed virtual credit cards because they are viewed as unnecessary in light of the fact that credit card companies generally do not hold customers liable for fraudulent purchases. However, the bigger picture is that online credit card fraud can turn into a bigger case of grand-scale identity theft, from which it takes a lot of time and money to recover. And who really wants to deal with that?