Since the beginning of time mankind has invented and evolved new methods to carry out business and trade. Credit cards are not a new concept. Dating back from the mid 1940’s the first credit cards were introduced by American Airlines and the Air Transport Association to promote air travel. Later banks and financial service providers offered the service to their customers. The present age of computing power, and internet diversity has further revolutionized the way we carry out our day to day financial transactions. Whether it is online shopping, funds transfer, booking a holiday abroad or buying other services online, credit cards make it all possible from the comfort of your home. But are internet transactions secure enough? Yes, with the introduction of Virtual Credit Cards they are now!
Internet Marketplace & The Pirates
The internet age has brought immense comfort and ease to customers in making the right product choices. Search the web for what you need, and in what price range, all the options available to you will be there. Choose what suits you best and pay via your credit card in a few keystrokes. As it is with all good things that have a downside, the internet marketplace also experienced a glitch. Pirates of the web surfaced as a threat to the otherwise safe considered online transactions. The introduction of Virtual Credit Cards has helped overcome this problem.
Security Made Possible
Modern encryption techniques and online security protocols/parameters such as SSL, SMPX etc are now in place to ensure the utmost security of your financial transactions. As an added measure of security the concept of virtual credit cards, the VCCs has long been introduced. VCCs are cards specifically for use over the internet and are considered a secure mode of online transactions. Using the SET (Secure Electronic Transactions) Protocol security and confidentiality of transactions is made possible. The merchant to customer and the customer to bank information security protocol is followed allowing access only to information relevant to each of the two parties. These are simply cards linked to the users bank credit card or a physical bank account playing an alias to the original. All VCC service providers have a payment authorization mechanism. It can either be an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) call on your personal cellular phone asking you to confirm whether you are the one carrying out the transaction or in certain cases it can be either an SMS/e-mail message delivered to your validated number or email. Some banks today provide temporary/ time bound VCC accounts. The best thing with VCCs is that you can yourself set the maximum credit limit, expiry date and the specific online locations where to shop from. Meaning, no chances of fraud or the card being misused.
Virtual Credit Cards: A Great Service
One such virtual credit card service is Paypal. Offering services purely relying on digital systems to carry out transactions Paypal is one of the earliest to start among all virtual credit card payment providers of its kind. It has around 81 million operational accounts spread over 190 markets around the globe. An innovative bill-me-later service allows customers to be billed for their e-invoices later via a bank account or a credit card. They offer partnered services with all major online stores. Whether you buy accessories from amazon.com, pay for advertising over the internet or a domain name from a registry such as godaddy.com, Paypal is always there. Another of the better VCC providers is Entropay. Having loaded funds into your Entropay VCC from a regular bank account they set you free to shop over the internet once you have verified your address and other account details. A nominal transaction fee is charged when the card is used. A good alternative to Paypal, Netletter VCC offers a prepaid master card and signing up is free of charge. Usage costs per transaction. For people in the US Netspend offers quality VCC services in partnership with both visa and master cards. American express a big name in the US banking industry offers VCC services alongside master and visa cards for secure, hassle free online spending. And there are several other similar services in the marketplace.
Go Get It!
A Virtual Credit Card is a must have. With technology rapidly advancing and people getting used-to readily adapting newer, easier ways in life, VCC is a blessing for both the customer and retailer. Times are long gone when people fearing of identity theft stayed away from making purchases or carrying out monetary transactions over the web. In this wonderful era of Virtual Credit Cards, if you don’t have one, you are missing a lot.
