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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That’s the theory, but in reality there will be fewer combinations. You have the BIN, various other numbers can be fixed between cards to denote account type, etc (for example, Amex), and then the Luhn algorithm limits combinations further (to calculate the checksum).
I think a few years ago someone from the Monzo payments team did a post about it and the conclusion was that while it’s some time away, the industry will run out of card numbers.
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Already factored the BIN into it. Take the bin out and the pool is even larger. Monzo have multiple BINs, too.
The Luhn algorithm narrows the pool in reality, but the available pool is so large to begin with, it’s inconsequential. We’ll run out some day, sure. It’s inevitable. But we’ll move onto something else when that happens, if not before. But right now, it’s not a pressing concern, else these kind of features (or entire companies) wouldn’t exist solely on this premise.
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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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The US presence is very tiny compared to the U.K. though. And it’s a trivial issue to solve as they onboard more customers. Even constrained, we’re still in the theoretical billions of potential numbers.
But they need to keep innovating like this in the US to grow that presence. They’ve no real incentive to do that in the UK anymore. They’re the dominant fintech, and the incumbents will never move first.
All we get on this side of the pond are excuses for why they can’t, shouldn’t, or won’t, give us features like this, which @ndrw alluded to above, so we have to settle for lesser implementations.
The one that stings for me especially are expenses pots. Impossible, we were told, by Monzo representatives. Built, it was, by US Monzonauts. Similar story with these virtual cards too.
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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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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