How often have you chosen to pay on a new website and immediately felt tremors? This has happened to the best of us. The simple answer to this problem is to create virtual credit cards.
There are so many sites throwing in deals that are hard to ignore. But as identity theft continues to plague the world, we must be more thoughtful of where to put our bank details. Fortunately, we can now generate virtual credit cards while making such payments.
Read along to know all about how to generate virtual cards along with their benefits.
Also read: Virtual Credit Card Generator
What is a Virtual Credit Card?
A virtual credit card is similar to a normal physical card, except it exists only in virtual form. It provides a unique 16–digit credit card number connected to the main credit card account. This card allows you to make transactions without exposing your real card details. Unlike real credit cards, you need not wait to generate virtual credit cards as they can be generated instantly.
Let us walk you through the process of- how to create virtual credit cards. But before that, here are a few things to know about virtual credit cards.
Advantages of a Virtual Credit Card
There is a list of benefits you can avail of once you generate virtual cards.
- Virtual credit cards provide you with a spending limit and you can set it manually. It provides fraud protections and tools that help manage expenses by tracking and securing them.
- The second and biggest advantage of a virtual card is its virtual state. The fear of getting the physical card misplaced or stolen is eliminated. The amount of plastic used up by a physical credit card is humungous, and virtual cards help ease that tension too. You just need a virtual card generator to generate virtual cards.
- If you generate virtual credit cards, you will have more privacy, protect yourself from the advertisers’ data tracking and protect your sensitive financial data.
- Generating virtual card numbers can be beneficial for businesses. They can create virtual credit cards for their employees. These cards can be allotted and used immediately while maintaining the cash flow. This ensures enhanced and secured payments while maintaining the records.
- The biggest advantage that comes as you generate virtual cards is the option to close the virtual credit card account without closing the main account. If you ever have to face the dreaded credit card fraud, you can close the virtual credit card. This helps in keeping the original data safe. Besides, this saves a lot of time in tracking down the fraudulent website or payment gateway.
Limitations of a Virtual Credit Card
Like the advantages, the feature that limits its usability is its non-physical state. Since it is a virtual card, it can’t be used to do transactions where a card swipe or touch is required. Another downside to using a virtual credit card is that you might not be able to exchange or return products always. Some return policies need a card swipe to authenticate the purchase, which might not be possible with a virtual card.
Therefore, if you shop regularly from an online store or make bulk business purchases online, you can generate virtual credit cards.
Why Should You Generate Virtual Cards?
With the world moving to digital transactions, getting lost and finding yourself trapped in financial misery is easy. It has become crucial to protect privacy from the malicious lot. And the first step toward online safety is to generate virtual credit cards.
- Once you generate a virtual credit card number, it is beneficial for both the consumer and businesses. It allows them to manage funds and purchases while controlling spending and reporting tools. All this while minimizing the security risks from both sides.
- With the help of the data and tools, consumers and banks have less to worry about. This has become possible as consumers can pay securely without compromising their personal information while banks have fewer fraud cases to look into.
- It is advised to generate virtual credit cards for people new to online spending and purchases, especially the young or people who are technologically challenged. If you generate a virtual card number, you will be ensured that even if they make irrational spending online, the sensitive data is safe. Any further damage can be prevented by closing the virtual card number.
- Digital payments are becoming a favorite mode of transaction worldwide. But the traditional payment cards that contain magstripes and chips are more costly to operate with physical equipment. This makes them more vulnerable to tampering and malfunction. As you generate virtual cards, you help ease this problem as well.
Also read: Generate Unlimited Visa Card Number
How to Generate Virtual Credit Cards?
Now that we have learned about various aspects of virtual credit cards, let’s learn how to create virtual credit cards.
To generate virtual credit cards, the existing credit card account is linked to the virtual card. This helps to generate a virtual card number, a random 16-digit number, just like an actual card number. These numbers can be used to make online transactions and would appear as the normal card numbers to the merchant.
Another way to generate virtual cards is to request virtual card numbers through the online portals of your bank. The process might differ for different banks. You may even set up a spending limit as well as a custom expiration date on the virtual cards. These extra steps help protect against financial fraud, misuse, or overspending.
Where to Generate Virtual Credit Cards?
It is not rocket science to generate virtual credit cards nowadays. If you already have a credit card, you may have access to a virtual card number as well. To confirm this, you simply have to log into your online bank account and search for “Virtual Card Number” or “Virtual Account Number.”
The other way to generate virtual credit cards is to place a request with a bank that provides this facility by linking the pre-existing card to the online service.
Some providers that help you generate virtual cards are Citi Virtual Account Numbers, Wells Fargo digital Wallet, Click to Pay from Visa, American Express, and MasterCard.
While you create virtual credit cards for yourself, you can choose between single or multi-use virtual card numbers. Knowing the difference between a single-use and multi-use card can come in handy as you generate virtual card numbers.
Single-use cards can be used to carry out an online purchase or to withdraw cash from an ATM. Whereas multi-use cards can be used as a delegated means to pay a regularly visited merchant. This helps track personal purchases in a sorted manner while maintaining privacy as it is exposed to a specific vendor.
Below is the list of solutions that can be used to generate virtual credit cards in India:
1. Netsafe card from HDFC bank
HDFC has always been the go-to option for online purchases owing to its top-class services. It also has a sorted roadmap on how to generate virtual credit cards. It has a free virtual credit card solution known as ‘Netsafe’. This help to generate virtual cards and can be used for various online transactions.
Some of the characteristics of Netsafe that help us create virtual credit cards are its easy handling, outstanding security, and hassle-free settlement.
You can also earn rewards and bonus points by using Netsafe to create virtual credit cards for yourself.
2. Eshop virtual credit card from Axis Bank
Axis Bank provides a free and accessible means to generate virtual credit cards called the e-shop to its users. You can generate virtual cards, called the shop virtual card, by registering your credit card details with Axis Bank’s official site.
You must have a visa card to generate virtual cards with Axis, aka e-shop card. Mastercard is not an option. The validity of an e-shop card is 48 hours and the monthly statement reflects in the original credit card statement.
3. Generate a virtual credit card from ICICI Bank
ICICI bank can generate virtual cards on the cardholder’s primary card as an add-on card. The user sets the limit, which depends on the limit on his primary card.
The main perk as you generate virtual card numbers with ICICI Bank is its zero-cost policy. There is no charge to generate virtual cards with ICICI. You can use it for all kinds of international transactions just like any other credit card.
4. SBI virtual credit card
The official website of SBI is where you should go to create virtual cards with them. The top spending limit is set at Rs 5,00,000 but it cannot be used to carry out international transactions.
How to Generate Virtual Cards for Corporates and Businesses
Virtual cards are an enhanced feature that the commercial baking partner can offer. No waiting period is required to generate virtual card numbers for these cards. These can be issued as both single-use as well as multi-use cards.
The vendors and merchants of e-commerce stores might find these multiple virtual card numbers valid as they help track the orders in a more sorted manner.
Way Forward for Virtual Credit Cards
The use of virtual credit cards looks like a thing to stay. Their ability to lend themselves to automated purchasing processes makes them quite a prospect for future use. With so many benefits and less danger of online fraud, virtual credit cards indeed have a bright future!
So what are you waiting for? Go now and create a virtual credit card for yourself and step into secure banking.
