Virtual debit cards.

Sometimes you need to pay for something online. Perhaps you want to make sure your phone is not shut off because you forgot to pay on time.

Maybe you just want to buy something from someone your not sure about and want to minimize your risk.

Services like "Privacy.com" offer a really nice service that is free for personal use. I use it myself and I love it.

You create an account then link that to your checking account. Then you can create individual virtual debit cards for each vendor you wish to pay.

You can set a montly limit, a per use limit or both. I have made cards for Amazon, eBay, Netflix and even my local grocery store for home delivery. If you want to subscribe to a trial period on some site, make a dedicated virtual card, subscribe with that card then once your service starts trial, go to your privacy.com account and just PAUSE that card so it becomes inactive. If you like the service and wish to keep it just un-pause the payment. If you forget...no big deal, they cannot debit that card to renew.

While this does not protect your identity because you likely must provide that to a buyer to take delivery etc. at least you are not exposing your real debit card or your bank information. Should their system ever get hacked, the hackers will only have that limited virtual card info which you can delete any time. Worth knowing too: once a virtual card is used for the first time, it locks to that one merchant - even if someone else gets hold of the card number, it simply won't work anywhere else.

Check them out HERE! I highly recommend them and use it myself regularly. (Note: Privacy.com is independently backed, not a Square/Block subsidiary - the company rebranded its card-issuing technology as Lithic in 2021, with Privacy.com continuing on as the consumer-facing product.)