Try out virtual cards 💫

Monzo USA 🇺🇸
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Hi all, it’s Rachael from US Marketing, and I’m here to tell you about our virtual cards, our first feature launch to kick off the new year :rocket:

But wait… what is a virtual card?

Virtual cards are just like a real card, with unique card numbers and CVCs. They’re great for when you don’t want to use your physical card details. (Like for example shopping on a website you’re not too sure of). You can also add them to Apple Pay or Google Pay to use them in person.

Three settings to choose from

  • Free trial cards - These cancel after the card is checked, so you won’t be charged later.
  • Single-use cards - These cancel after one purchase, so you can shop with peace-of-mind
  • Standard cards - You can use these for repeat uses and set an auto-cancel for when you don’t need it anymore.

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback!

We’d love to know how you’re using the cards, and if you have any questions.

This is going to be an exciting year for Monzo US so stay tuned for more!

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This is a great idea in my opinion. I don’t believe we have these options here in the UK. Just standard virtual cards

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10

Exciting feature. Is it live? I don’t see it in the app.

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Good grief Monzo why aren’t you introducing these in the UK?

Cards that essentially destroy themselves after one use is actually a helpful feature.

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12

Something Revolut has offered for free for years too.

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13

Seems like a fair explanation, but I still don’t think VC’s should be paywalled when it doesn’t cost anything to produce them.

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Come to think of it, I wonder how often these virtual numbers can be recycled? Surely once a number is “burned” it would be incredibly wasteful if it couldn’t be reused at some point in the future.

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What does it waste? :thinking:

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I presume a number. There are theoretically finite numbers available.

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Oh I see. Yes as @N26throwaway says those are not running out anytime soon :smiley: go wild

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Oh I know I just can only think that’s what they were referring to.

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Oh, that’s plenty. I thought the Luhn algorithm meant that you’d be limited to a hundred million or some number that seemed large but could run out quite easily if everyone decided to make more than a few virtual cards.

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The interesting part is that you’d think that Monzo would be more BIN-constrained in the US given they rely on a partner bank to actually issue cards, which means possibly only having access to one or even a subset of one BIN (I don’t know how many Sutton, the card issuer, actually has and how many of them they allow Monzo to use). So I’m a bit surprised it’s the US that gets open access first.

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26

Hi there - you should be able to create a virtual card in the Cards section in the app - I’ve attached an example screenshot

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27

Revolut now blocks you signing up for recurring subscriptions/trials with their disposable cards, it gives you a warning message on the 3DS screen before rejecting it

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I created a virtual card for Amazon/eBay shopping. It’s a great feature for customers that want to have more control over their fraud risk exposure. Coupled with an Expenses bucket, Monzo has created a very functional and easy to use features set.

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