Protecting Your Debit/Credit Card Numbers

Your debit card number is given out frequently if you regularly shop online. Every time you type it into a website you are trusting that they will handle your information properly and yet you have no way to know that they are doing so. Sooner or later, everyone seems to end up with mysterious charges on their bank account and they have no idea how their information was stolen.

The best way to prevent these events is to protect your privacy with privacy.com.

The idea is simple. Only privacy.com has your real debit card or credit card number. Whenever you want to make a purchase online, rather than handing out your actual card numbers, you get a masked card number from privacy.com. The masked card number automatically maps to your true card number without ever exposing it to the online merchant. The charge goes through just as seamlessly as usual and your privacy is protected.

You might be thinking “can’t someone just steal your masked card number?” Well, not really. Once a masked number is used for any particular online merchant, it can never be used for any other merchant. So, if they steal it from apple.com and try to use it on amazon.com, it will be declined (and you’ll get an email to let you know it was declined). So, right off the bat, a stolen number’s usability is reduced by 99.99% (probably more, but let’s keep it simple). So, a thief would have to steal it and use it on the exact merchant they stole it from.

But the protection goes beyond that. On every masked number you are able to set limits on how much can be charged per month, per year, per transaction, or total.

Additionally, you can pause the card number so it is unusable entirely, until you un-pause it. Or, you can close it, rendering it unusable forever.

One of my favorite uses for masked card numbers is for free trials. How many times does a “free trial” require you to give out your credit card to get the trial? All the time, right? With privacy.com, simply generate a new masked number, set a $1 limit, and give them the masked number. Once you sign up, pause the masked card, and enjoy your free trial. Then, when you forget to cancel after the trial, they will try to charge you but the charge will be declined. If you want to continue beyond the free trial, simply un-pause the card, increase the limit to an appropriate amount needed for that transaction, and then it will start working.

What about returns or refunds? They are no problem at all. Returns and refunds happen just like usual. The refunds route through the masked number and get credited back to your bank account just as quickly and easily as you’re used to.

You are limited to 12 new card numbers per month, but remember, a card can be used repeatedly after it is created. This is only a monthly limit to the number of unique masked card numbers that can be generated.

Masked card numbers are only good for online purchases, so they cannot be used in stores.

Privacy.com can be linked up with 1password, so if you are a 1password user then you can generate new card numbers from your 1password app.

You also have the option to mask your transactions on your bank statements. So, maybe you purchased something from Amazon, but your bank statement can show “NSA Giftshop” instead of Amazon. This is only an option. If you don’t activate that option then your bank statements will reflect the actual merchant, as usual.

You can sign up here using my referral link: https://app.privacy.com/join/PNZUX

When you sign up with that referral link, you’ll get $5 to spend anywhere online, and I’ll get a $5 credit too. So, we’ll both get paid exactly the same.