What is a virtual card for?

El E-commerce It is not a promise for the future, or a trend, it is a reality in Spain and Europe. Let's talk a little about electronic commerce in Spain. It is the fourth country with the most internet operations in Europe, despite the crisis that has been in place for just over eight years in our country. It is estimated that each Spaniard made 21 purchases online in 2015, spending an average € 661,62 each. We are talking about 10,8 billion euros in internet transactions.

But, despite this, there are still fears in people who are not familiar with it. electronic commerce, the reservations are large: fear of fraudulent transactions, identity theft, higher charges than scheduled, and even data leakage.

The best thing for these people is the use of virtual cards, a financial product, free in most financial institutions, that shields security and leaves all the aforementioned fears without arguments. Today we want to help you to know better what they are, what they work for and the best virtual cards for this year, still considered nascent.

What are virtual cards?

Virtual cards are fictitious debit card simulations, which help to hide the true identity of the owner. It is a product created specifically for mobile or internet purchases. Most banks already offer this service: in your bank account, you can create a card, to which you can add or remove balance from your normal account.

That card has numbers and expiration date, but not the name of the person. Each entity has its own policies, but normally everything can be configured: the balance, the expiration date can be chosen by the customer.

For example, you can create a virtual card that you have € 300 of balance and that the expiration date is within a week.

What is a virtual card for?

It is one of the most asked questions by clients of Spanish financial institutions, including Santander, BBVA, La Caixa, Liberbank or Sabadell: what are these virtual cards for?

It is both very simple and complicated, because the uses and benefits are numerous and in a chat at your bank window, it may not be the best place to find out. For that we will help you.

What is a virtual card for?

• You protect your identity
• Virtual cards are kind enough to hide the identity of the card owner. Why is this useful?
• It will help you above all to avoid theft and identity theft, as there are many software that track the owners of the bank accounts that are used, they even use malware on computers for this.
• In this way, they will be unable to know the owner of the virtual card, as it does not exist. It is a formidable resource for privacy.
• You avoid overdrafts on your bank account

Una virtual card is something like the old prepaid cards for the mobile: you can add balance or remove it, and handle that amount only.
We will give you a simple example: you will buy a Blue Ray from "The Walking Dead" that costs € 99, ​​and your bank account has your entire payroll of € 900. For whatever reason, the actual cost is € 108, since you didn't count the shipping costs.

Easy, in virtual card you add only € 100, and thus avoid surprise expenses. We have put a small example, but it can be important expenses that can add to you.

You can, for example, allocate a certain amount for your Internet shopping, without fear of exceeding the budget you have for it.

Anyone can use it

A little known and used advantage of virtual cards, is that they are widely recognized and used by anyone to carry out any online transaction. Most electronic businesses accept virtual credit cards, giving freedom to the buyer to use it, and can also use it anywhere in the world.

This will allow you 'lend money without the need to handle it. You create a virtual card, and you give it to your children or nephews, so they can make their purchases and you control their expenses without any type of privacy risk or excess expenses.

Decrease the lifetime of your balance

In addition to being able to limit the balance of a virtual card, to avoid charges outside the planned, you can also set an expiration date.

What can it do for you?

Simply, if someone intercepts the data, the life of the card is minimal, and they will not be able to use it beyond the balance and the expiration date.
In addition, they give it the character of disposable cards, which is the essence of virtual cards, such as prepaid cards for your mobile. There is no flexibility in your goal

The best of these virtual cards, is that they cannot be used outside of their initial objectives. That is, if you create a virtual card in your financial institution, it cannot be used, for example, in a physical place giving the numbering, and only you or whoever has the card number, can use it.

You protect yourself from hacks

Remember the Ashley Madison hack? If not, we will tell you quickly. It is a dating site for sexual encounters. A hacker stole and published the data of his millions of clients all over the world, including politicians, celebrities and individuals… including their credit cards.

With a virtual card You avoid this type of event and safeguard your anonymity and your security, above all.

This way you avoid not only the use when data can be stolen on websites where you have made a purchase, if it is not shielded, that site, the information of its customers in an appropriate way.

What are virtual cards not for?

Obviously, we must tell you things that are not suitable for your virtual cards, simply because they are not for it. We tell you the situations in which you should not use virtual cards.

Periodic payments

There are services under the subscription or membership method, such as Netflix, Yomvi, or other services that are paid periodically, can also be services such as an application or software for your work.

By its nature, expiration of these cards is small. Use it only if you want to limit the use of the service and be valid only for the duration of your card. This way you avoid forgetting when making the payment to your normal card.

In any case, we recommend not using it for these purposes, the essence of virtual cards is to be disposable, to use and to throw away.

Receiving returns

Un inconvenience of buying with virtual cards is that, if you buy a mobile online, for example, and it arrived defective and you request a refund, you will have problems, especially if the card has already expired.

If you are going to buy something that involves an exchange or return, first check with the store its policy for virtual cards, to avoid problems, although its use is already general, there are still many shops that do not have a clear policy on the handling of this type of products.

Where to get my virtual card?

Most financial institutions already have this service so requested by many, some even force its use for internet transactions, thus shielding the security of their clients, whether they want them or not.

If you want to use a virtual card, and you want to know the advantages, we have reviewed the best virtual cards on the market in Spain, with their respective costs and advantages of each one. Most of them are free for clients or their costs are very low. In some entities they do not publish the conditions of use, and we have placed "To consult".

ENTITY	COSTE	DESCRIPTION
BBVA	Free	You can associate it with the app for your mobile, and have absolute anonymity in the use of your cards.
Unicaja Bank	Free	It is not a prepaid card, and you can control it from your virtual office.
Liberbank	To consult	It works like a prepaid card without providing anonymity. You have insurance in case of theft or fraud.
The Caixa Bank	1% on the recharged balance	The management protects it with CaixaProtect, it also gives € 5 if you make two purchases of € 10 minimum.
Banco Sabadell	To consult	It is an anonymous prepaid card that can be transferred to a third party. Provides the advantage of being able to use them as a gift.
Bankia	Free	It protects all the operations of the virtual card with its technology called 'Secure Payment'.
EVO Bank	Free	You can create an unlimited number of cards associated with your main card, instead of your bank account.
Santander	Free if you make three purchases	You can recharge the virtual card from your online account as in any 4B ATM.
CajaMar	Free	The virtual cards are VISA, which guarantees their acceptance in the majority of businesses around the world.
novanca	Free	It is a rechargeable card at ATMs, and it works under Mastercard.
open bank	Free	It is recharged at ATMs, and has an urban transport insurance of 120 thousand euros.
ONE-e	Free	Shield security even more by requiring the PIN of your main card for each operation you carry out.
kutxabank	Free	It uses the VINI system, and the customer can choose the expiration date of each card.