How a Virtual Credit Card Differs From a Traditional Credit Card

Have you ever been frightened by the risk of theft when making company purchases with your debit card online? Many businesses have this fear, and countless others have had this fear become a reality when their credit card numbers were stolen online. If your business makes many debit card purchases and you want your fears to be put to rest, you could certainly benefit from opening a virtual credit card account. In a world where nearly everything is available in a virtual or digital format, it is not surprising that virtual MasterCards are making an appearance. Here is how a virtual card differs from a traditional credit card.

The first major difference is that a virtual credit card does not come in a physical form. Instead, it is a unique 16 digit virtual MasterCard number for a single purchase. Every new purchase you make generates a new number with which you make your purchase. In this way, a virtual card is completely secure because with ever-changing numbers, it is impossible to steal. Even if a thief did get his hands on your one-time credit card number, he could not use it to make another purchase or link the number back to your personal information.

Virtual MasterCard accounts give businesses more control over and visibility into company spending. From a control perspective, a virtual MasterCard number can have a dollar spending limit or a particular expiration date. It can even be restricted to certain merchant types (for example, it can be limited to gasoline purchases). From a visibility perspective, making purchases on a company credit card, even a virtual one, can provide real time information on employee spending.

Printing, processing and shipping checks to vendors can be an extremely time consuming and resource heavy process. This is another area where a real advantage can be gained by using virtual MasterCards. A virtual credit card company that is partnered with a major credit provider such as MasterCard can help you make payments to nearly any vendor. No paper is used, and no one has to write a check, put it in an envelope, etc.

In this day and age, when theft of information such as credit card numbers and associated personal data is a real threat, it is important that businesses take steps to maximize the security of their financial information. A virtual MasterCard account accomplishes this goal by changing the debit card number for every transaction, thus eliminating at least one piece of data that can be stolen and used illegally.