3 ms·

Old idea. There's banks and cc companies that currently and previously have offered this. It never caught on because there's not a market for it.

ethanbond 10y ago
There's at least a market of one, the person to whom I replied. Thanks for the snark though. And none of my banks offer this that I know of? If they do, the UX certainly isn't anything like this.
- mikeash 10y ago
  I don't think it's snark, it's just a factual statement that this isn't new. They were pretty common about ten years ago, but I haven't seen any recently. I used to use them a lot. My favorite feature was that you not only got a one-time number, but you could set a limit for it so you couldn't be overcharged. Great for ordering stuff from shady web sites. Well, it was my favorite feature until I did that with a shady web site and got overcharged. I called my bank to ask WTF, and they said they automatically padded the limit by 10% because people are idiots and forget to account for shipping charges and such. I did get my money back after fighting with the scammers for a while. Threatening them with a chargeback tends to bring them to their senses.
- nommm-nommm 10y ago
  I wasn't being in the least snarky. If one person wants something that doesn't mean there's a market for it nor did amelius express interest in virtual card numbers. I wholeheartedly share his or her sentiment but I don't have interest in virtual card numbers. Citibank and Bank of America (and their subsidiary FIA Card Services) are the big ones who currently offer this service and there's a whole host of other third party services as well some big names and some small names. AMEX discontinued theirs in 2004, Discover discontinued theirs in 2011, reinstated it, and then discontinued it again in 2015, PayPal's Virtual Debit Card discontinued in 2010. They don't provide much use because you probably would have better luck disputing the auto charge with your credit card company anyways. They don't offer any additional fraud protection and they may not work as you expect. Additionally taking away auto-payment to a service you signed up for doesn't actually cancel the service, you still have to unsubscribe. You may actually still owe them money depending on what you signed up for.

ethanbond 10y ago

There's at least a market of one, the person to whom I replied. Thanks for the snark though. And none of my banks offer this that I know of? If they do, the UX certainly isn't anything like this.

mikeash 10y ago
I don't think it's snark, it's just a factual statement that this isn't new. They were pretty common about ten years ago, but I haven't seen any recently. I used to use them a lot. My favorite feature was that you not only got a one-time number, but you could set a limit for it so you couldn't be overcharged. Great for ordering stuff from shady web sites. Well, it was my favorite feature until I did that with a shady web site and got overcharged. I called my bank to ask WTF, and they said they automatically padded the limit by 10% because people are idiots and forget to account for shipping charges and such. I did get my money back after fighting with the scammers for a while. Threatening them with a chargeback tends to bring them to their senses.
nommm-nommm 10y ago
I wasn't being in the least snarky. If one person wants something that doesn't mean there's a market for it nor did amelius express interest in virtual card numbers. I wholeheartedly share his or her sentiment but I don't have interest in virtual card numbers. Citibank and Bank of America (and their subsidiary FIA Card Services) are the big ones who currently offer this service and there's a whole host of other third party services as well some big names and some small names. AMEX discontinued theirs in 2004, Discover discontinued theirs in 2011, reinstated it, and then discontinued it again in 2015, PayPal's Virtual Debit Card discontinued in 2010. They don't provide much use because you probably would have better luck disputing the auto charge with your credit card company anyways. They don't offer any additional fraud protection and they may not work as you expect. Additionally taking away auto-payment to a service you signed up for doesn't actually cancel the service, you still have to unsubscribe. You may actually still owe them money depending on what you signed up for.