You can LISTEN to my newsletter! Go to https://go.ttot.link/VirtualCards and you’ll be able to listen to it. Let me know if you like this feature or not and whether I should continue it. No, that’s not me reading it.

A lot of the subjects I write about come from you! I attend and host a number of Zoom meetings every week. Our discussions there give me an idea of where a lot of your collective interest lies. That’s the case today.

We were discussing how to sign up for trials that give you free access for a time but require a credit card. I’m sure you’ve seen offers for free streaming trials, news sites, AI, and so on. The question becomes how to remember to cancel at the end of the trial. Of course, we could set a reminder to cancel a few days before the trial ends. I don’t know about you, but I almost never remember to set that up.

One way to deal with that is to use a “virtual credit card.” What are they? How to get one?

Many banks and credit card issuers today offer virtual credit cards. They are virtual in that there is no actual card. Your bank (or card issuer) creates a new card number along with an expiration date and a CVC (the 3-digit number you often must use to confirm you have the card). The card will be associated with your bank or credit card account, depending on the issuer, and all charges to that card go against the backing account.

If you don’t have access to virtual cards from any of your providers or banks, there are services that provide that feature. Privacy.com has both free and paid plans. Cloaked.com offers more than just virtual credit cards. For a fee, in addition to virtual cards they can provide virtual phone numbers and email addresses as well as dark web monitoring. There are other services out there so do some searches if you’re interested.

A card can be set up in several different ways. It can be a single-use card — once it’s been used it can’t be used again. The card can be locked to a certain retailer so the only charges allowed are from that same retailer. You can set a limit on some cards so they can only be used for transactions less than, say, $50. Or you can set a limit for certain periods like $100 max in a month. You can often set an expiration date beyond which the card will no longer be honored. And of course, you can cancel the card at any time. A friend has created a PDF that shows you the steps needed to create a virtual credit card with Capital One: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tk3QH2MFYBpYfj_KD2C4_Be1URrLO7_5/view?usp=sharing.

So, go ahead and sign up for that free trial. Generate a virtual card for it (you can have multiple virtual cards, one for each trial). Set a limit or an expiration date or even make it a single-use card. Be aware that some sites will submit a small charge to the card just to validate it, which would consume that one allowed use, rendering the card unusable after that.

If you’re unsure of the legitimacy of a retailer, you can create a virtual card for that retailer. If anything odd or untoward happens, simply cancel that card and move on. Your real card is still safely tucked away. If a breach occurs at any of the retailers you’ve given a virtual card to, the only thing at risk is that virtual card, which is easy to cancel.

I use them all the time! I use them for my streaming services with a monthly limit so, if I miss a notice of a price increase, the service will tell me that the charge was denied. Then I can decide if I want to keep the service and increase the card’s limit or cancel the service.

The ways to create and configure a virtual credit card vary as widely as there are providers. You must have a real credit card from your provider to create and use a virtual one. Even banks generally require you to have one of their credit cards to generate a virtual card. Chase does not offer virtual credit cards but they have a good summary of the features and capabilities of virtual cards at https://www.chase.com/personal/credit-cards/education/basics/virtual-credit-cards.

I hope you have an idea of what virtual credit cards are, how they can protect you as well as a little about how to use them. Don't hesitate to write to me if you have questions!

As always, I aim to help you understand the basics and equip you to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me at [email protected] with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, newsletter signups, or whatever. Or just drop me a quick note and say HI!

And remember that I maintain a NotebookLM notebook of all my previous newsletters at https://go.ttot.link/TonysNotebook. Since it has access to all of my newsletters, you can ask it questions like “what are passkeys” or “what can I do to help me remember things.” You’ll need a Google account to access it and, when you visit, you’ll be given your own NotebookLM notebook.

If you like, you can read my most recent newsletter in the Hillsboro Times Gazette at https://go.ttot.link/TG-Column - I should have that link updated shortly after this edition of the newsletter appears in the online version of the newspaper.