What are Virtual Cards?

Virtual cards act in the same way as a normal credit card, but they don’t have a physical counterpart meaning that you get your card number right away and don’t have to wait for a card to be shipped in mail. This allows you to create a lot of cards each with it’s own limit to better control spending and avoid exposing your entire credit card limit with every purchase that you make.

Benefits of Virtual Cards 👌

• Virtual cards ensure that your real credit card information does not get stolen. Credit card scammers have been getting more and more intelligent and they have been able to acquire many credit card numbers through hacking websites. Once a website’s security is bypassed, any saved credit card information is accessible to hackers and can subsequently used without the owners knowledge. For example, you can buy stolen card credentials for $15 on the black market.
• In the case that your credit card details are compromised, you would need to call your bank to cancel it and wait a lengthy period of time to receive a new credit card. With virtual cards, the randomly generated credit card information is only used one time for a specific purchase and never used again, thus even if hackers find the information, they can’t use it again.

Drawbacks of Virtual Cards

• Virtual cards are intended to protect your identity and information online and are not designed to be used in person at stores. Depending on your use case, virtual cards may not act exactly the same as the physical credit cards you are used to.
• Getting your hands on Virtual cards in Canada can be difficult, unless you’ve heard of Float 😉

Virtual Cards for Business 📈

Virtual cards are very useful for businesses who need to let employees use company money. The business can an unlimited number of virtual cards to employees with limits and expiry dates to manage their spending. This not only makes it easier for employees to spend company money and not spend out of pocket, it also ensures that the company credit card info stays safe. Furthermore, during these times of working from home, virtual cards are 2 meter apart compliant!

So if you’re looking to upgrade your business spending practices, try the virtual cards and spend management software Float.

Written by

Ruslan Nikolaev