Virtually Secure

Citi Virtual Account Numbers win the Product of the Week Award



CitiBank Card Virtual Account Numbers
Virtual Account Numbers on Technorati
Credit Card Security
Identity Theft

After having had my own Credit Card numbers stolen twice now, once having the thief charge up a storm on websites, the other time having had thousands stolen by way of Western Union (a popular conduit for credit card thieves), I decided something had to be done. Well, lo and behold, CitiBank created Virtual Account Numbers (or V.A.N.). This system is great for creating "disposable" credit card numbers. You can set your own expiration date and, most importantly, set the amount available. The number can only be used by the single merchant, and only up to the amount you set. Because you never give out your real number, it stays safely in your wallet.

Need to provide a number for PayPal or DirecTV authorization, whereby they just need to verify address data? This is the way to go: just create one good for $4 or so, provide it to your merchant, and you need never worry about that number coming back to bite you in the butt.

I've used it a lot; it even lets you go in and close out numbers after the merchant has charged on it for added security.