A privacy card is a virtual card number that sits between your bank account and an online merchant, so the merchant charges a disposable 16-digit number instead of seeing your real bank details. The provider generates the card number, CVV, and expiration date on demand, authorizes each charge against your linked checking account, and settles with the merchant on your behalf. Privacy.com is the most widely used service in this space, with a free tier that lets you create up to 12 virtual cards per month.1Privacy. A Plan for Everyone – Privacy Card
How a Privacy Card Works at Checkout
You generate a card inside the provider’s dashboard, copy the number, CVV, and expiration date into a merchant’s checkout page, and submit the order the same way you would with any debit card. The merchant’s payment processor sees a valid card. What it never sees is your bank routing number, account number, or any identifier that ties the transaction back to you.
The provider verifies funds against your linked bank account in real time and authorizes the specific dollar amount. The connection runs through an Automated Clearing House link or a verified debit card from a U.S. bank or credit union. Because every privacy card number is unique and isolated from your actual account, a merchant data breach exposes only the virtual number, which is often already expired or locked to that single merchant.
The Four Card Types
You pick the type before generating the card, and that choice governs how the card behaves for its whole life.
Single-use (burner) cards self-destruct after one completed transaction. Once the payment settles, the number is permanently invalid, and any future charge attempt gets declined. These suit one-time purchases from unfamiliar websites.
Merchant-locked cards bind to whichever merchant processes the first transaction. After that, the card only works at that one store. Any other merchant that tries to charge it fails. This fits subscriptions well because the card keeps working where you want it to and is useless anywhere else if the number leaks.
Category-locked cards, available on the Plus plan and above, restrict a card to a type of merchant rather than a single store. You could limit a card to grocery stores or streaming services, for example.1Privacy. A Plan for Everyone – Privacy Card
Everywhere cards, available on Pro and Premium, work at any merchant with no restriction, functioning like a traditional debit card while still masking your real account. You can have up to three open at a time.1Privacy. A Plan for Everyone – Privacy Card
What You Need to Sign Up
Federal anti-money-laundering rules require privacy card providers to verify your identity before issuing virtual cards. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, financial service providers must run Customer Identification Programs that collect, at a minimum, your full legal name, date of birth, a physical residential address, and a taxpayer identification number.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 5311 – Declaration of Purpose For most individual applicants, that number is your Social Security Number.3eCFR. 31 CFR 1020.220 – Customer Identification Program Requirements for Banks The provider checks these details against national databases before activating your account.
You also need a U.S. funding source. Privacy.com currently supports only U.S. checking accounts and debit cards from U.S. banks or credit unions. Credit cards cannot be used to fund privacy card transactions.4Privacy. What Can I Use to Fund My Privacy Account A small verification deposit confirms the link, and from then on each privacy card purchase automatically debits that account.
Setting Limits, Pausing, and Closing Cards
When you generate a card, you set a spending limit. The limit works as a hard cap: any charge that would push the card over gets declined automatically. You can set limits on a per-transaction, monthly, annual, or total-spend basis.
You can also pause or close any card at any time. Pausing blocks all future charges and is reversible. Closing is permanent.5Privacy. How Do I Pause or Close Privacy Cards Neither action cancels charges that have already been authorized. If you want to stop a subscription from renewing, pause or close the merchant-locked card before the next billing cycle and the renewal charge will be declined.
Refunds reach you even after a card is closed or expired. The provider keeps the internal link between defunct card numbers and your underlying bank account, so a refund issued to a dead privacy card routes back to your checking account, generally within about 10 business days of the merchant issuing it.
Where Privacy Cards Cause Problems
Privacy cards handle standard online checkouts cleanly. Certain situations trip them up.
Gas stations, hotels, and car rental agencies place temporary pre-authorization holds that often exceed the actual purchase. A gas pump might hold $50 to $100 before you’ve pumped a gallon. If your card limit sits close to what you plan to spend, the hold alone can trigger a decline. Raising the limit works, but loose limits weaken the point of tight controls.
Subscription renewals can fail silently. If a merchant raises its price, adds tax, or tacks on a surcharge that pushes the charge above your spending limit, the renewal is rejected and you may not notice until the service stops working. Keep the limit above the realistic ceiling of the charge.
Some merchants block virtual cards entirely. Cryptocurrency exchanges are the most common, and certain streaming platforms, cloud services, and gaming marketplaces occasionally require a bank-issued card and reject virtual numbers. There’s no universal list, so a small test transaction is sometimes the only way to know.
Fraud Liability and Disputes
Privacy cards qualify as access devices under federal Regulation E, which defines an access device as any card, code, or other means of accessing a consumer’s account to initiate electronic fund transfers.6eCFR. 12 CFR 1005.2 – Definitions That classification gives you the same federal liability protections that apply to debit cards.
If someone makes an unauthorized charge, your maximum liability depends on how quickly you report it:7Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 1005.6 Liability of Consumer for Unauthorized Transfers
- Reported within 2 business days: liability caps at $50 or the amount of unauthorized charges before you reported, whichever is less.
- Reported after 2 business days but within 60 days of your statement: liability caps at $500.
- Not reported within 60 days of your statement: you could be on the hook for the full amount of unauthorized charges that occur after that 60-day window, on top of the $500 from the prior tier.
For disputes rather than outright fraud, federal law gives you 60 days from the date of the statement containing the disputed charge to submit a written dispute to your financial institution.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666 – Correction of Billing Errors Major card networks often allow longer windows: Visa, Mastercard, and American Express each generally give 120 days from the transaction date, and claims involving undelivered goods can stretch further under network-specific rules. Privacy.com’s fraud team handles disputes on your behalf by investigating the claim and initiating a chargeback with the network if the dispute has merit.
The practical defense still comes from the card type. A single-use card is dead after one transaction. A merchant-locked card only works at one store. The federal protections sit behind that as a backstop.
What It Costs
Privacy.com offers four tiers:1Privacy. A Plan for Everyone – Privacy Card
- Personal (free): up to 12 new cards per month, merchant-locked and single-use types, 3% foreign transaction fee with a $0.50 minimum.
- Plus ($5/month): up to 24 new cards per month, adds category-locked cards, card sharing, card notes, and API access. Same 3% foreign transaction fee.
- Pro ($10/month): up to 36 new cards per month, adds Everywhere cards (up to 3 open), 1% cashback on eligible purchases up to $4,500 per month, no foreign transaction fees.
- Premium ($25/month): up to 60 new cards per month with all Pro features and no foreign transaction fees.
The free plan covers most people who just want to keep bank details out of merchant databases during routine online purchases. Paid tiers start to earn their fee if you create more than a dozen cards a month or want category locks, Everywhere cards, or cashback.
Credit Score Impact
Privacy cards do not affect your credit score in any direction. The provider does not run a credit check when you sign up, and your privacy card activity never appears on your credit report.9Privacy. Will Accepting the Terms and Conditions Impact My Credit Score That cuts both ways. If you’re trying to build credit history, privacy cards won’t help because they draw from your checking account rather than extending a line of credit. If you just want to shield your bank details, the lack of reporting is a clean benefit.