Lately I’ve been contemplating paying for access to a special website. The site offers both subscriptions and one month-only access; I would want one-month access.
Payment is through a service called Segpay, who apparently have a bad habit of making monthly subscription charges appear on your charge card, even when you didn’t sign up for a subscription. (To be fair, looking over internet discussions of problems with Segpay, it’s difficult to weed out which problems are caused by the special sites themselves, which are Segpay, and which are plain old user incompetence.)
So to minimize my exposure, what I think I need is something that looks like a charge card (because Segpay’s site wants a number, an expiration date, and a CCV), but with a credit limit of, say, $50, and which would expire automatically after a month.
Get a $50 prepaid card (you’ll have to pay a additional service fee of ~$5) or check if your card issuer offers virtual cards that you can set the amount and sometimes expiration date on. If it doesn’t allow you to set a date, just delete virtual card. My Capital One card has this and I think my Citi card does too.
If you’re in the U.S. most prepaid cards can’t be used for international purposes. They used be, but this was stopped to prevent international money laundering. Check the card usage terms before buying.
Also, from my experience, Segpay won’t accept payments from U.S. cards, regular or prepaid anyway.
Don’t rely on the virtual credit card numbers. The company that made the first charge to the virtual credit card can force through additional charges even after the card expires. I know this from experience.
This has not been my experience. I use Abine masked cards for dating apps in particular, because they make it literally impossible to cancel, and it has worked every time for me. When the masked card is out of money, it’s done, no more charges can go through. So I put one month or two months worth of money on it, and that’s it.
I’ve also used them for other purposes to similar effect, and I’ve never had one charge me after it’s out of money, they’re one-time-use things.
As a bonus, you don’t have to expose your address to shady companies who will sell your info.
Bank of America has for years offered EXACTLY this service. Alas, they have just recently announced they are discontinuing it. It is designed specifically to enable card-holders to make on-line purchases safely.
I would VERY MUCH like to find another credit card provider with this service. If Capital One and Citi offer such, as lingyi suggests above, I’d like to know more about it and so would Rocketeer. Can you tell us more about how it works, lingyi?
I have a Citi bank card and have used the virtual card for both subscriptions and the odd one time purchase from a vendor I am unfamiliar with. If time limited, the subscription services would send a message to me stating that the card was expired or soon to expire. Citi had the option of setting a card with a dollar limit, or a dollar and time limit ( or was it a time limit or a dollar and time limit?) I am not sure, but I did have the subscription numbers set to be good for twelve months. Anyway, I have yet to have a problem, but then I also haven’t had a dispute with a vendor, which sounds like what Alley Dweller may have experience with.
There are two ways to create the virtual number: from the Citi card web site, or with a desktop app. You CAN’T do it from the Citi card Android app, which seems silly to me, as when using my phone it probably when I want to use a virtual number. Perhaps Capital One has this sorted out, but I don’t have an account with them.
Everybody I know who’s paid for access said it wasn’t worth it. The porn you find on those ‘special websites’ is the same porn that’s available for free elsewhere via search engines.
It doesn’t allow you to set an amount and time limit, but some do. If the merchant forces a charge through, dispute it right away. Which leads to the ultimate defense. Monitor your card activity closely and dispute charges, even for $0.01 which may be a test on a hacked card immediately.
Shop online with an extra layer of protection using Virtual Account Numbers at checkout. When you use this temporary credit card number instead of your real account number your credit card number remains private and protected.
Stay in control by setting time and dollar limits for each Virtual Account Number. With two convenient and easy ways to access Virtual Account Numbers you’ll shop with confidence every time.