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Just allow me to create as many 'virtual' credit cards from a single card and that's enough. Every single provider that promised that feature has either underwh

Just allow me to create as many 'virtual' credit cards from a single card and that's enough. Every single provider that promised that feature has either underwhelmed, or gone out of business.

mbrynard 8y ago
Revolut offers this. I can create virtual cards and one-time-use cards.
- ValentineC 8y ago
  Only on their Premium plan. It's also sad that they seem to be the one of the few companies outside the US that does this.
onlyrealcuzzo 8y ago
Yes. I'm so sick of businesses relying on people not cancelling to exist, and thereby making their calcellation process as time consuming and obtuse as possible to reduce consumers chances of cancelling. Consumers should be able to just NOT pay for a service, and then it's on the service-provider to turn off the customer's access. I can't tell you the amount of services I've past up on simply because I don't want to (potentially) deal with an awful cancellation process, and then go through the hassle of charging back on my CC. It's just not worth the time -- and they know it and depend on it -- which is frankly disgusting. Invest some time in a better product...
- vtange 8y ago
  Does their data remain though? If it does then your data would still be in danger of hackers if said business got attacked, etc. Aren't businesses supposed to treat customer data as liabilities now? Some consumers would want complete removal of their data after deciding not to continue paying for service.
  - convolvatron 8y ago
    just to reflect your attitude, why should we trust them to delete our data? why do we even tolerate a background level of fraud at all? how about this - I dont use my cards that often - maybe 20 times a week. i'd be much happier if i got a notification through a side channel with a proposed charge and I could click 'yes' or 'no'. it makes alot more sense to me than having to poll my account to look for potential fraud and argue with the bank about re-issuing a card with a new number. wouldn't that be simple? i understand that for some usage patterns that would be inconvenient. the broader point is that I shouldn't need to expose personal information just to buy a tea towel, I shouldn't even have to give you my email address so you can start sending my helpful hints about how awesome your other products are.
  - onlyrealcuzzo 8y ago
    Firstly, MOST businesses don't store any credit card information so it's easier to be PCI compliant if the need arises and in order to limit liability. So if you trust the business enough to put in your CC#, you don't have to worry about the biggest issue. Secondly, I don't know of ANY company that deletes customer data upon cancellation. I've worked at a few ecom companies now, and the marketing team would just LOL at that idea. Past customers are pretty much your highest converters. No way are you gonna get rid of your data on them. MAYBE in Europe with GDPR. Even still, no company I've worked at does this even for European customers. I'm skeptical a meaningful percentage of companies do.
- spectramax 8y ago
  I found Spotify cancellation process surprisingly refreshing. Just a big giant cancel button with a confirmation. Done.
  - abawany 8y ago
    Same with Sling and Britbox - no fuss cancellations all online. Was impressed.
- hoveringcto 8y ago
  I use the Amex online chat to block a specific merchant when I want to cancel. Takes less than 60 seconds and they will decline any charge matching that merchant descriptor.
- Gpetrium 8y ago
  There is a tricky balance to the point you have raised. If the business makes the process too easy, the attrition will increase and the pricing structure will have to go up for the remaining buyers. When that happens, you would come in here to complain that the prices of goods & services are exorbitantly high. "Invest some time in a better product" is not an appropriate solution since consumers have different incentive processes and those incentives changes throughout their lives. There is a diminishing return on investment for the producer of the g&s and they have to find the right balance. The process of increasing cancellation cost (e.g. time), inadvertently puts the onus on the consumer to do their due diligence prior to purchasing a product.
  - onlyrealcuzzo 8y ago
    No. I personally wouldn't complain that prices are exorbitantly high. If the price should be higher to cover the cost, it should be higher! It should NOT be hidden in an absurdly complex cancellation process. That's my opinion. Maybe you feel differently. But know that a lot of people feel the other way also.
caprese 8y ago
> Just allow me to create as many 'virtual' credit cards from a single card and that's enough. What? Apple Pay does this. Oh they don't expose the numbers to you, but they use a virtual card at time of purchase.
- oarsinsync 8y ago
  Kinda want the ability to cancel a virtual card at will too, which isn't possible via Apple Pay.
  - jki275 8y ago
    The concept of virtual cards is that they're essentially single use -- they cancel themselves.
    - filoleg 8y ago
      I think, the parent comment meant that they would like to get a virtual card, so that they can attach it to a service (e.g., create a virtual card for paying your netflix subscription only, and then another card for hulu only, etc.), and then simply remove that virtual card when they want to stop using that service. Especially helpful if the service makes you jump through a ton of hoops to cancel your subscription.
      - oarsinsync 8y ago
        Correct. I use Apple Pay with a web service (Hover, domain registrations) and with an app service (Uber). In the case of Hover, I have performed a single authorisation, and it is now capable of performing repeat transactions against my card. There is no interface within Apple Pay (that I can find) to remove that authorisation, I have to ask Hover to do that. In the case of Uber, I perform an authorisation for an expense before I know what the amount is, and I'm not required to re-authorise when tipping. The Hover example is the problem. Not specific to Hover, but rather specific to the lack of virtual card management within Apple Pay. Virtual cards by definition do not have to be single use, (un)fortunately.
theshrike79 8y ago
They create a virtual card for each and every purchase automatically. No need to do that manually.
d1zzy 8y ago
Did you try Citi cards? I've been using one for years and I think at most I had about 15 virtual account numbers on it (but I do try to keep things tidy generally).
- abawany 8y ago
  Unfortunately the only approach that I know of with Citi is this Flash-based app, which is increasingly getting painful to use on desktop browsers and seems impossible on mobile. Have you found a more modern approach to using them?
hbosch 8y ago
Privacy.com?
- SonicSoul 8y ago
  I think you have to give them your bank #. so i'd assume its bad for similar reasons a debit card is bad. but i'd like to hear more from people that used it. also i doubt you'd get any spending points.. which is kind of a big perk
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
llacb47 8y ago
I've heard of services that offer this, but perhaps they don't work as well as they say they do.
pgrote 8y ago
Capital One provides this through a nifty chrome extension. Works great.
twohearted 8y ago
BofA still offers this but it's a shameful desktop-only tiny popup that only works with flash. They call it shopsafe.
xeromal 8y ago
I used that feature so many times with Paypal and Final and both closed that product after a year or two. I'm not sure what kills it, but it's a difficult space I guess. Maybe too much fraud to handle?
- pfranz 8y ago
  I'm pretty sure Bank of America had it probably 5-8 years ago. But it was web-only (I think it required a Java applet?) and awkward to use.
  - rietta 8y ago
    Longer. I used it once around 2006 to pay for an academic conference that the university was reimbursing me for. Looking back, the university making me pay registration during one of the most cash strapped points in my life was crazy.
hprotagonist 8y ago
As i understand it, this is part of what Apple Pay does anyway. Rolls a new use-once number per transaction.
throw0101a 8y ago
> Just allow me to create as many 'virtual' credit cards from a single card and that's enough Apple Pay already does this via the "EMV Payment Tokenisation Specification": * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pay#Technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pay#Technology Anyone can implement it; it's not Apple-proprietary.
- wool_gather 8y ago
  This is not what parent is talking about; they want to be able to generate a unique number for a website where the number + CVV is entered manually.
  - donarb 8y ago
    If you're using Safari, it will auto-fill the virtual card number automatically for you.
jwr 8y ago
Revolut lets you do this, but I suspect they will be going out of business soon, given the new competition from Apple.
- benhurmarcel 8y ago
  Apple isn't launching this in Europe (where Revolut operates) anytime soon, at least with this kind of offer.
- Foivos 8y ago
  The major difference is that Revolut is prepaid, whereas this one is credit.
tpowell 8y ago
I use privacy.com for that and have been happy with it. Nice controls (one-time, max monthly allowance, custom expiration).
aboutruby 8y ago
I hope someone does this based on Stripe's API. https://stripe.com/issuing https://stripe.com/issuing

Just allow me to create as many 'virtual' credit cards from a single card and that's enough. Every single provider that promised that feature has either underwhelmed, or gone out of business.

mbrynard 8y ago

Revolut offers this. I can create virtual cards and one-time-use cards.

ValentineC 8y ago
Only on their Premium plan. It's also sad that they seem to be the one of the few companies outside the US that does this.

onlyrealcuzzo 8y ago

Yes. I'm so sick of businesses relying on people not cancelling to exist, and thereby making their calcellation process as time consuming and obtuse as possible to reduce consumers chances of cancelling. Consumers should be able to just NOT pay for a service, and then it's on the service-provider to turn off the customer's access. I can't tell you the amount of services I've past up on simply because I don't want to (potentially) deal with an awful cancellation process, and then go through the hassle of charging back on my CC. It's just not worth the time -- and they know it and depend on it -- which is frankly disgusting. Invest some time in a better product...

vtange 8y ago
Does their data remain though? If it does then your data would still be in danger of hackers if said business got attacked, etc. Aren't businesses supposed to treat customer data as liabilities now? Some consumers would want complete removal of their data after deciding not to continue paying for service.
- convolvatron 8y ago
  just to reflect your attitude, why should we trust them to delete our data? why do we even tolerate a background level of fraud at all? how about this - I dont use my cards that often - maybe 20 times a week. i'd be much happier if i got a notification through a side channel with a proposed charge and I could click 'yes' or 'no'. it makes alot more sense to me than having to poll my account to look for potential fraud and argue with the bank about re-issuing a card with a new number. wouldn't that be simple? i understand that for some usage patterns that would be inconvenient. the broader point is that I shouldn't need to expose personal information just to buy a tea towel, I shouldn't even have to give you my email address so you can start sending my helpful hints about how awesome your other products are.
- onlyrealcuzzo 8y ago
  Firstly, MOST businesses don't store any credit card information so it's easier to be PCI compliant if the need arises and in order to limit liability. So if you trust the business enough to put in your CC#, you don't have to worry about the biggest issue. Secondly, I don't know of ANY company that deletes customer data upon cancellation. I've worked at a few ecom companies now, and the marketing team would just LOL at that idea. Past customers are pretty much your highest converters. No way are you gonna get rid of your data on them. MAYBE in Europe with GDPR. Even still, no company I've worked at does this even for European customers. I'm skeptical a meaningful percentage of companies do.
spectramax 8y ago
I found Spotify cancellation process surprisingly refreshing. Just a big giant cancel button with a confirmation. Done.
- abawany 8y ago
  Same with Sling and Britbox - no fuss cancellations all online. Was impressed.
hoveringcto 8y ago
I use the Amex online chat to block a specific merchant when I want to cancel. Takes less than 60 seconds and they will decline any charge matching that merchant descriptor.
Gpetrium 8y ago
There is a tricky balance to the point you have raised. If the business makes the process too easy, the attrition will increase and the pricing structure will have to go up for the remaining buyers. When that happens, you would come in here to complain that the prices of goods & services are exorbitantly high. "Invest some time in a better product" is not an appropriate solution since consumers have different incentive processes and those incentives changes throughout their lives. There is a diminishing return on investment for the producer of the g&s and they have to find the right balance. The process of increasing cancellation cost (e.g. time), inadvertently puts the onus on the consumer to do their due diligence prior to purchasing a product.
- onlyrealcuzzo 8y ago
  No. I personally wouldn't complain that prices are exorbitantly high. If the price should be higher to cover the cost, it should be higher! It should NOT be hidden in an absurdly complex cancellation process. That's my opinion. Maybe you feel differently. But know that a lot of people feel the other way also.

caprese 8y ago

> Just allow me to create as many 'virtual' credit cards from a single card and that's enough. What? Apple Pay does this. Oh they don't expose the numbers to you, but they use a virtual card at time of purchase.

oarsinsync 8y ago
Kinda want the ability to cancel a virtual card at will too, which isn't possible via Apple Pay.
- jki275 8y ago
  The concept of virtual cards is that they're essentially single use -- they cancel themselves.
  - filoleg 8y ago
    I think, the parent comment meant that they would like to get a virtual card, so that they can attach it to a service (e.g., create a virtual card for paying your netflix subscription only, and then another card for hulu only, etc.), and then simply remove that virtual card when they want to stop using that service. Especially helpful if the service makes you jump through a ton of hoops to cancel your subscription.
    - oarsinsync 8y ago
      Correct. I use Apple Pay with a web service (Hover, domain registrations) and with an app service (Uber). In the case of Hover, I have performed a single authorisation, and it is now capable of performing repeat transactions against my card. There is no interface within Apple Pay (that I can find) to remove that authorisation, I have to ask Hover to do that. In the case of Uber, I perform an authorisation for an expense before I know what the amount is, and I'm not required to re-authorise when tipping. The Hover example is the problem. Not specific to Hover, but rather specific to the lack of virtual card management within Apple Pay. Virtual cards by definition do not have to be single use, (un)fortunately.

theshrike79 8y ago

They create a virtual card for each and every purchase automatically. No need to do that manually.

d1zzy 8y ago

Did you try Citi cards? I've been using one for years and I think at most I had about 15 virtual account numbers on it (but I do try to keep things tidy generally).

abawany 8y ago
Unfortunately the only approach that I know of with Citi is this Flash-based app, which is increasingly getting painful to use on desktop browsers and seems impossible on mobile. Have you found a more modern approach to using them?

hbosch 8y ago

Privacy.com?

SonicSoul 8y ago
I think you have to give them your bank #. so i'd assume its bad for similar reasons a debit card is bad. but i'd like to hear more from people that used it. also i doubt you'd get any spending points.. which is kind of a big perk
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

llacb47 8y ago

I've heard of services that offer this, but perhaps they don't work as well as they say they do.

pgrote 8y ago

Capital One provides this through a nifty chrome extension. Works great.

twohearted 8y ago

BofA still offers this but it's a shameful desktop-only tiny popup that only works with flash. They call it shopsafe.

xeromal 8y ago

I used that feature so many times with Paypal and Final and both closed that product after a year or two. I'm not sure what kills it, but it's a difficult space I guess. Maybe too much fraud to handle?

pfranz 8y ago
I'm pretty sure Bank of America had it probably 5-8 years ago. But it was web-only (I think it required a Java applet?) and awkward to use.
- rietta 8y ago
  Longer. I used it once around 2006 to pay for an academic conference that the university was reimbursing me for. Looking back, the university making me pay registration during one of the most cash strapped points in my life was crazy.

hprotagonist 8y ago

As i understand it, this is part of what Apple Pay does anyway. Rolls a new use-once number per transaction.

throw0101a 8y ago

> Just allow me to create as many 'virtual' credit cards from a single card and that's enough Apple Pay already does this via the "EMV Payment Tokenisation Specification": * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pay#Technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pay#Technology Anyone can implement it; it's not Apple-proprietary.

wool_gather 8y ago
This is not what parent is talking about; they want to be able to generate a unique number for a website where the number + CVV is entered manually.
- donarb 8y ago
  If you're using Safari, it will auto-fill the virtual card number automatically for you.

jwr 8y ago

Revolut lets you do this, but I suspect they will be going out of business soon, given the new competition from Apple.

benhurmarcel 8y ago
Apple isn't launching this in Europe (where Revolut operates) anytime soon, at least with this kind of offer.
Foivos 8y ago
The major difference is that Revolut is prepaid, whereas this one is credit.

tpowell 8y ago

I use privacy.com for that and have been happy with it. Nice controls (one-time, max monthly allowance, custom expiration).

aboutruby 8y ago

I hope someone does this based on Stripe's API. https://stripe.com/issuing https://stripe.com/issuing