‘Virtual Credit Card’ is a unique payment solution which is used for online transactions only. The short lifespan and limited amount of VCC makes it one of the secure payment methods. There is no physical existence of the VCC but only available over online. This is one of the payment methods becoming popular day by day.

How do we get Virtual Credit Card?

Virtual Credit Card is always associated with your “Primary Credit Card”. The process which is used to generate VCC slightly differs from bank to bank but the basic principle remains the same. Please note I have used, for reference, HDFC’s ‘Netsafe’ & ICICI’s “Inifinity” account. Please refer to the respective bank website to get more information on this type of account.

Steps to generate VCC:

1. Refer to Internet Banking section of the bank website to register your Primary Credit Card. Refer to HDFC Bank – netsafe account; ICICI Bank – inifinity account.
2. Provide necessary information during the initial registration process of the netsafe/infinity account. Remember this information is crucial for the password retrieval as well as for online transactions.
3. After the successful registration of the netsafe/inifinity account, login to the corresponding account to generate a new Virtual Card.
4. You can set the amount based on your spending limit. This new virtual credit card number, date of expiry and CVV are used for the online transactions instead of the “Primary Credit Card”.
5. The usage of the VCC can be viewed in the netsafe/infinity account on real time basis.
6. All transactions done using VCC will reflect on the Primary Credit Card statements and there will not be any separate credit card statement for each VCC.

Why do we need Virtual Credit Card?

VCC is one of the secure payment methods to prevent the misuse of “Credit Card” during online transactions. VCC prevents the sharing of the confidential “Primary Credit Card” details like CVV, number and expiry date with the internet world. Newly generated VCC is valid only for one online transaction within the expiry date of the VCC. You can delete VCC at any point of time if you don’t want to use it and amount will be credited back to your Primary Credit Card upon the removal of the VCC. When the VCC is targeted by the phishing & identity theft website, the amount of damage is very less compared to “Primary Credit Card”. It is practically, impossible to get the information of “Primary Credit card” by using VCC only since VCC are being generated by the ‘secure system’.

If the bank offers this type of secure payment solution then it provides a detailed demo on generating and using VCC. Please refer to the respective links of the bank.

References:

http://www.hdfcbank.com/personal/payments/netsafe/netsafe.htm

https://infinity.icicibank.co.in/Login.jsp