What's your experience with virtual credit cards / privacy.com?
September 11, 2021 12:29 PM Subscribe
Short version: have you had experience with a consumer virtual credit card company that you recommend? Privacy.com is the one I'm considering, but open to learning about others.
A few months ago I started in a volunteer role for an organization and they created an account for me with Ramp.com to manage virtual cards for some of the things we spend money on.
Loved the idea, but Ramp is aimed at organizations and not individuals. I've looked at Privacy.com and it seems like a decent solution - but I don't know anyone who's used it and wanted to ask if any Mefites had experience with Privacy.com good or bad or indifferent. Or other virtual card providers!
The bottom tier of Privacy.com is free, so I'm assuming that they are funding that by selling some information about how people use the service / spend money. Their privacy policy claims they don't share personally identifiable data w/3rd parties.
What I want is the ability to assign a virtual credit card to a service that is tied only to that service, with a limit on spending that can be closed at any time. So, random service requires a phone call to close an account opened online? Eff 'em, close the card instead. Netflix has a data breach? No big, attackers only get a card that can only be used with Netflix for ~$15 a month.
Please tell me your experiences with virtual private cards and/or provide advice/suggestions. Thanks!
A few months ago I started in a volunteer role for an organization and they created an account for me with Ramp.com to manage virtual cards for some of the things we spend money on.
Loved the idea, but Ramp is aimed at organizations and not individuals. I've looked at Privacy.com and it seems like a decent solution - but I don't know anyone who's used it and wanted to ask if any Mefites had experience with Privacy.com good or bad or indifferent. Or other virtual card providers!
The bottom tier of Privacy.com is free, so I'm assuming that they are funding that by selling some information about how people use the service / spend money. Their privacy policy claims they don't share personally identifiable data w/3rd parties.
What I want is the ability to assign a virtual credit card to a service that is tied only to that service, with a limit on spending that can be closed at any time. So, random service requires a phone call to close an account opened online? Eff 'em, close the card instead. Netflix has a data breach? No big, attackers only get a card that can only be used with Netflix for ~$15 a month.
Please tell me your experiences with virtual private cards and/or provide advice/suggestions. Thanks!
I'm using Privacy for a few things and have no real problem with it. (Other than the time I drained the account I had it connected to by accident, because I forgot that it was connected to a different checking account than my main one while testing it. But that was a me problem, not an them problem.) It integrates with my password manager (1Password) too, and there's a Chrome extension so it's relatively painless to create new virtual cards for things. I suppose the main problem I have is that it can only have one funding source set up at a time - it'd be nice to have the funding source for each card be settable rather than having your account tied to just one source at a time.
I did try to run a virtual card or two past its configured limit and it barked at me (as it should have), so the functionality seems to work. Plus, it emails you to tell you when things happen, which is especially nice for subscription services (basically, you can just allow list Privacy emails and if your subscription's emails get spam-holed for whatever reason you've still got that notification). It's pretty configurable too so cards can be one-time use or not, or have limits per transaction or timeframe, etc.
posted by mrg at 5:07 PM on September 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
I did try to run a virtual card or two past its configured limit and it barked at me (as it should have), so the functionality seems to work. Plus, it emails you to tell you when things happen, which is especially nice for subscription services (basically, you can just allow list Privacy emails and if your subscription's emails get spam-holed for whatever reason you've still got that notification). It's pretty configurable too so cards can be one-time use or not, or have limits per transaction or timeframe, etc.
posted by mrg at 5:07 PM on September 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
i've had Privacy for about a year now and no complaints. works very well, and can quickly spin up or close a virtual card. also has a phone app. I had only a couple of questions and they answered very quickly with satisfactory answers. only "issue" i have had is their support of Apply pay - no support right now, however they gave this answer:
"While we don't yet support digital wallet usage with Privacy Cards, this is definitely on the roadmap and we're hoping to be compatible soon!"
posted by alchemist at 3:26 AM on September 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
"While we don't yet support digital wallet usage with Privacy Cards, this is definitely on the roadmap and we're hoping to be compatible soon!"
posted by alchemist at 3:26 AM on September 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
My capitalone card offers this for free, I haven't used it a lot but it seems ok (and they are really eager for me to be using it more, so I guess it probably helps them cut down on fraud too).
So, random service requires a phone call to close an account opened online? Eff 'em, close the card instead.
So, hopefully this isn't too off-topic for askmefi rules, but this strategy is risky, as I've personally found by accident in a really unpleasant way. Long story short, doing this will eventually probably cause your account to be closed, but because you didn't actually close it it's entirely possible that you owe them the money for the billing that happens until they close it, and if they can't get payment from you by other means (do they have a correct mailing address?) they are in their rights to do things like send the bills to collections etc. I'm sure many companies may not get to this point, but it's a dice roll and there are those that I can attest definitely will (e.g. telecoms, which very often require a phone call). This is the kind of thing that can definitely end up on your credit report even for what will seem like extremely small sums of money. It's an awful system and it's not stacked in our favor; based on what for me was a really painful experience I really, really don't recommend this use of virtual card #s, just call them.
posted by advil at 7:34 AM on September 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
So, random service requires a phone call to close an account opened online? Eff 'em, close the card instead.
So, hopefully this isn't too off-topic for askmefi rules, but this strategy is risky, as I've personally found by accident in a really unpleasant way. Long story short, doing this will eventually probably cause your account to be closed, but because you didn't actually close it it's entirely possible that you owe them the money for the billing that happens until they close it, and if they can't get payment from you by other means (do they have a correct mailing address?) they are in their rights to do things like send the bills to collections etc. I'm sure many companies may not get to this point, but it's a dice roll and there are those that I can attest definitely will (e.g. telecoms, which very often require a phone call). This is the kind of thing that can definitely end up on your credit report even for what will seem like extremely small sums of money. It's an awful system and it's not stacked in our favor; based on what for me was a really painful experience I really, really don't recommend this use of virtual card #s, just call them.
posted by advil at 7:34 AM on September 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
I've used Privacy.com off and on for a few years, and I've been happy with them. Their service works as advertised, both as a way to limit fraudulent charges and and as a way to hide your "billing" location.
They make a few cents per transaction because of the merchant fees and other transaction fees involved in a credit card transaction -- every time you "swipe" one of their "cards", they get paid for it. Multiply that by enough transactions, and you have a business model. This isn't a "it's free because we're selling your privacy" as much as "it's free because like all debit card providers, we charge the merchant instead of the consumer."
posted by toxic at 9:02 PM on September 12, 2021
They make a few cents per transaction because of the merchant fees and other transaction fees involved in a credit card transaction -- every time you "swipe" one of their "cards", they get paid for it. Multiply that by enough transactions, and you have a business model. This isn't a "it's free because we're selling your privacy" as much as "it's free because like all debit card providers, we charge the merchant instead of the consumer."
posted by toxic at 9:02 PM on September 12, 2021
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posted by advicepig at 1:11 PM on September 11, 2021 [1 favorite]