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Comment by brazzledazzle | Hacker News Reader

I can't understand why virtual card numbers haven't been embraced across the industry. While it wouldn't solve every problem you mentioned it would make the need to update cards with services non-existent. I think it's safe to assume that a virtual card number per service would also allow them to more quickly assess where the breach occurred.

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Bank of America still offered this last time I checked, but the stupid thing required Flash so I never bothered with it.

Only for BofA credit cards. For some reason they won't let you use it for their debit cards.

Not to mention requiring Bank of America. No thank you.

Agree. If Google and Apple can do per-app passwords for apps or websites that don't work with 2-factor authentication it seems like Visa should be able to kick out a per-merchant number for Comcast, Netflix, etc.

If the underlying credit card number is compromised, just change that and leave the virtual in place.

This used to work with Paypal virtual debit cards. At some point in the last 5 years they decided to cancel the program.

Just a quick chime in here - our system does in fact do that, and though I can't speak with authority about others, my understanding is that they do the same.

The biggest problem with virtual card numbers at the moment is when you show up at the hotel and cannot provide the card you reserved the room with. Notwithstanding that, they are quite successful in some parts of the world.

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