It’s the busiest shopping time of the year and everyone is buying gifts for friends and family. It is a perfect time for fraudsters to strike. We all know how inconvenient and time consuming having a compromised credit card can be. Every app and subscription service that has your card saved for automatic billing needs to be updated, urgent phone calls must be made and panic strikes that your identity is at risk. Credit card companies are now offering a new solution.
As technology improves, hackers find new ways to breach databases and gain access to your information. Once they have your card number, they can either use it for their own gain, or sell it to someone else to use. Either way it’s a lose-lose for you.
Virtual credit cards have been around for years but are just now gaining popularity because of their effectiveness in fighting against fraud.
Using a virtual credit card eliminates the risk of this happening to you. It’s like an authentication code or a coupon, the card number is unique to you and that specific purchase. Once the payment is processed the card number is no good and if a fraudster gets ahold of the number, it will be useless.
These virtual credit cards offered by Capital One, Citibank and American Express generate unique card numbers every time you make a purchase online. Check out the links at the end of this blog to learn more about each specific virtual credit card.
One of the nice conveniences is that you do not have to deal with a new card number every single time. Capital One offers a Google Chrome extension called Eno. When it’s time to check out Eno automatically generates and autofill’s the credit card information. The only thing you do is fill in the shipping and billing address (which can also be saved and auto filled by Google).
If you are someone who has been affected by the millions of dollars lost to credit card fraud, this might be something to consider. And, if you have not been impacted this is also a great time to protect yourself with this innovative new option.
