What kind of animal is this? Virtual payment cards

Nowadays, no one can be surprised with virtual money and the fact that you can make purchases on the Internet without leaving your home. But now there is such a thing as virtual payment cards. What is it, what is it intended for and how to handle it, and I will tell in my article

About virtual cards and their purpose

Virtual payment cards are an analog of the usual payment cards, but without a real physical carrier, i.e. it exists only in electronic form. In fact, such a card has the same details as plastic cards: card number, customer data, expiration date. For lack of need, only the PIN code is missing, which is replaced by the CVC2 code, which is necessary in order to protect you from fraud, which is so common on the Internet. The most common cards are VISA or MasterCard and, as a rule, virtual cards are an additional service to plastic cards.

Virtual payment cards are designed to pay for goods and services on the Internet, being a safer way to calculate than plastic cards, because the calculation method protects you that your main card number will become known to third parties.
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The validity of virtual cards can vary from one day to several years. There are both disposable cards designed for one purchase and reusable cards.
In order to pay online for purchases or services using a virtual card, you need to choose payment using a bank card as a payment method. Next you will be asked to fill out a payment form in which you enter all the data from your virtual card and make payment.

The advantages and disadvantages of virtual cards

The undoubted advantages of such cards include the following:

1. Reduced risk of becoming a victim of fraud. Virtual cards can be used only on the Internet, i.e. the possibility that it will be stolen or that intruders enter into an agreement with the cashier is excluded. And even if the number of your card is determined by the method of selection, then without knowing the identification code, no one can use it. Also, banks are not advised to charge the account the amount more than you expect to spend.
2. Efficiency. Virtual cards are much cheaper than their plastic counterparts, and also do not require any security deposit.
3. You can separate your real and virtual payments, which makes it more convenient to control all costs. And choose the limit of funds that will be transferred to a virtual card.

There are some drawbacks to using virtual payment cards. These include:

1. Limited scope. You will not be able to pay it for the reserved hotel rooms, car rent, even if you made an order via the Internet. Also, you can not make payments in regular stores and withdraw money through ATMs.
2. The limit of funds. If you need to make a payment more than the amount that the bank has allocated to you for a month, then the virtual card becomes useless.

How to open and how much it costs

Making a virtual payment card is even easier than a regular plastic card, since there is no need for a security deposit, and all you need is a passport from the documents. There are two ways to open a virtual card:

1. Contact the bank where your plastic card is open and write an application for providing you with a virtual payment card.
2. Fill out an online application for a virtual card on your bank website

The average cost of processing and annual maintenance of a virtual payment card is $ 3-10 - if you are a plastic card holder, $ 10-20 - if there is no plastic card. Some organizations offer the design of virtual cards not as an additional means to a plastic card, but as an independent means of payment. In this case, the average cost of a card is 2% of its face value, i.e. opening a card for $ 100 - you pay $ 2 for it.

Methods of replenishment and fees charged

You can replenish funds on a virtual card either through the branches of the bank in which your card is opened, or with the help of a transfer. As a rule, the commission is not charged when replenishing an account in a bank, but when transferring money it amounts to 0.5-2% of the amount, depending on what type of transfer you used.

So, for example, the Bank of Moscow charges $ 10 / $ 20 for opening a card, depending on whether you have a bank plastic card, and a $ 2 fee is charged for servicing the card for a period of 6 months. The cost of opening and annual servicing of a card in Vozrozhdenie Bank is 75 rubles; for each subsequent year, an additional 75 rubles is paid.

And in conclusion, I will give a list of some Russian banks in which you can issue a virtual payment card: Bank of Moscow, Bank Vozrozhdenie, VTB, Sobinbank, Alfa-Bank, Avangard Bank, Delta Bank, Severnaya Kazna Bank, AB ORGRESBANK.

Based on iShop