Did you know that virtual cards are a secure mode of payment that help in lowering the risks of fraud? Here are the most frequently asked questions about virtual cards.
A virtual credit card (VCC) is essentially a disposable version of your static debit or credit card, that when used for online purchases, can reduce the risk for credit card fraud. The usefulness of this card lies in the way that it shares card data. The card details such as the credit card number, the security code, address and expiry date are unique to each card.
The cards are created by your bank upon request from the individuals or corporates. They are mainly used by online travel agents to pay the hotels that they are working with.
Every time the customer needs to use it, the bank has to generate a new virtual card with different card details from the previous one.
In case your bank does not offer the virtual cards, there are third party services that will work with your existing cards. Entropay is a popular service that allows users to create virtual, disposable credit cards for free. The virtual cards ensure that the payment process between the online travel agents and their hotels is simple and straightforward.
For example, a client makes a booking through an online travel agent (OTA), pays the travel agent the amount indicated according to the invoice. Once the OTA receives the money, they deduct their commission then request the bank to produce the virtual card that they will use to pay the hotel for the accommodation. Virtual cards provide online retailers with dynamic information so that every time you pay using the virtual card, the verification data is different. As a result whenever a hacker gains access to the card, they are unable to charge the cards especially after the expiry date.
The expiry dates for the virtual cards is usually so much shorter than the normal credit cards. In the event that a hacker gets access to the card chances are it will expire before they have managed to withdraw any amount of money. Due to the fact that they exist for a shorter time, they are secure and they help to prevent fraud. The static credit card details are stored online once you pay through it, when someone gets access to the card they are able to charge it at any time. However if you use a virtual card the information stored can only be charged once.
At Pesapal, our online booking engine reservepot enables hoteliers to process virtual card payments for both Mastercard and Visa easily and directly to your account without all the waiting and anxiety. If you are a hotel manager, we can have Reserveport integrated onto your website so as to start charging virtual cards or as an Online Travel Agent, we create a virtual card tool for you that is interlinked with the payments page that we offer you can accept virtual cards processing.
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