Virtual credit cards link a temporary number to your existing account. With a virtual credit card, you can shop digitally without exposing your actual card number.

If you like to shop online, consider using a virtual or disposable credit card to protect against scams and privacy issues.

If you ever worry about typing in your credit card number when you're shopping online, there's a security option you might not know about: virtual credit cards. The introduction of chip credit ...

What is a virtual credit card — and how do you get one? Virtual credit cards make your online shopping safer, but you don't want to use them for everything.

When you use a virtual card to make a purchase, the payment recipient can only access and store the information of that temporary card, not your actual credit card account number.

When you use the virtual number, the bank that supplied it charges your purchase to your regular credit or debit card, but hackers never gain access to the underlying credit card information.

If you want to shield your credit card's account information while online shopping, use your physical card's virtual stand-in that has a unique card number for protection. Some credit issuers ...

Virtual cards give you more control over where and how they can be used, and you might want to set up multiple virtual cards for different purposes or different merchants.

How to Use Your New Credit Card Before It's Even Delivered Some credit cards can be used immediately upon approval, weeks before your physical card arrives in the mail.