Virtual Money Card Basics

Virtual money card is not tangible. There is no real "card" but a presence of the card as an account. You still have the card number, pin and everything related to a card. Virtual money card normally is branded as prepaid card.

Attributes

• It's virtual, meaning there is no physical card.
• This type of card is not hold in the wallet, but hold in memory.
• The card consists of everything a typical money card has: card number, account number, pin, 3 digit check (for debit/credit card), organization name, card issuer logo, etc.
• It work almost the same as a physical card, however with more limitations
• It cannot be taken with, but its data can be stolen.

Usage

Virtual card is also known as electronic money  (e-money) card, can be used over phone and internet, for:

• Online shopping - you can buy a lot of things online using virtual debit/credit card;
• Online bill payment - you can use virtual ATM card to pay the bills;
• Receive money from other money cards;
• Send money other money cards;
• Phone banking - it can be used over the phone;
• Internet banking - it can be used online to check balance and transfer money.

Advantages

The virtual card has many advantages over the physical ones:

• Many cards are internationally issued, meaning country independent, you can make a card of US even you live in China, as long as you pay the fees.
• There is no credit check, because all of them are prepaid cards, as long as you have money to deposit, you can spend.
• Save space: one virtual card = one slot available for another card... or less heavy to the wallet.

Limitations

Virtual card is intangible, so there are many limitations associated with it:

• Higher fees;
• Cannot be used offline because there is no plastic card and that mean cannot withdraw money from ATM and cannot buy things from local stores;
• Remembering the card number is hard, and you can't use it if you don't have the number.
• Many online merchants dislike virtual card, and they force to fax/email a photo of the card... but there isn't one.
• High risk, because the card issuer can run away and you can't do anything about it if you are cross-border.
• No over draft possible, meaning you spend as much money as you have in the card, not as much as you have in your safe.

Where to get

You can take a virtual card from many online issuers. Most of issuers are financial/investment company that provide prepaid card account. Those act as an agencies of the banks. Some banks also offer virtual card.

Fees

Virtual card is much more expensive in term of fees. There are all sort of fees:

• one time setup fee, this normally is higher than physical card;
• reload fee,  which is not with physical card;
• transaction fee, physical card has free transactions before they got charged;
• monthly fee, if the transaction fee is low, then monthly fee is high, and vice-versa.
• service fee, some of issuers even charge for phone support.

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