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Many of you might not know that you can protect your identity with a virtual credit card number when you’re shopping or paying bills online. These one-time use credit card numbers are linked to your actual credit card number, but are unusable by others or will be expired in a certain time period. If someone was able to obtain your virtual credit card number and try to use it elsewhere, it simply would not work. In this way, you can simply protect you and your identity. You don’t have to bother your credit card costumer service and fill in some forms. Virtual credit card number actually is named as Controlled Payment Number when it came out. A Virtual Credit Card Number can also be called as a “substitute credit card number” or “one-time use credit card”. It’s usually generated through the use of a web application or a specialized program offered by your credit card issuers.

Typically, a virtual credit card number has a limit and an expiration date between 2 to 12 months chosen by the account owner and can be used for many times with the same merchant. (can’t use it with many merchants) You real credit card number will never be revealed to the merchant. There are many credit card companies (Citi, Discover, Bank of America) offer this kind of service for free to their customers. I will briefly introduce each of them below:

Citi Bank—Virtual Account Numbers

This is a security feature of Citi credit cards. Whoever has a Citi credit card is eligible to use virtual account number as long as he/she has registered his/her credit card online. Generating a virtual account number is very easy in your Citi online account. Log in to your online account and select “Get a Virtual Account Number” on your screen. You can choose to download a software or opt for the online program which requires you to log in your account each time you need to generate a virtual account number. After you enter you real credit card number, the tool will automatically generate a new number for you. You can decide when the virtual credit card will expire between 2 to 12 months but on longer than the actual expiration date of your real credit card. If you want to change the expiration date, you have to generate a new credit card number. The virtual account numbers can be used when the purchases don’t require the presence of a physical credit card. You have to allow pop-up windows when use this program.

Discover Card—Secure Online Account Numbers

The Secure Online Account Number is a free service that providing additional online security for Discover card members. Like Citi’s virtual account numbers, you can choose to download the software (PC version) or use a online web application (browser version) to generate a virtual account number every time when you need one. For the PC version, download the tool and it will automatically launch each time you go to make a purchase. Click the “Fill Form” button, and a secure account number, Valid Through (Expiration) date and CID (security code) will be generated and automatically entered into the “Credit Card Number” field(s) of the online merchant’s checkout form. For the browser version, you have to follow these steps:

1. Click “Launch Now” button on the Secure Online Account Numbers main page to get a secure number. Sign in with your Account Center user ID and password.
2. Open a new browser window so you can view both Discovercard.com and the shopping site at the same time.
3. Shop at your favorite Web sites, copy and paste the secure number into the retailer’s checkout page. When ordering via phone, give the customer service representative the secure number.

According to Discover card:

Secure account numbers always expire on the same date as your actual Discover Card account number. When your Discover Card is reissued with a new expiration date, it will be necessary to update the expiration information on any retailer’s Web site where you have stored your actual card number or any secure account numbers.

Bank of America—ShopSafe

ShopSafe is a free service that can generate a temporary credit card number every time you want to make an online purchase.This number links directly to your real credit card account number but keeps your card number completely private and completely protected. The ShopSafe number is used as another credit card number but the merchant will never know your actual account number. To get ShopSafe, sign in to Online Banking and choose “Use ShopSafe” from your Account Activity screen. You can enter desired spending limit and expiration date there. And then ShopSafe creates a temporary account number that allows you to purchase with confidence. The ShopSafe service allows you to set your “Valid Thru” date for up to 1 year in the future.

Note: American Express card is not eligible to generate a virtual credit card number from above card issuers.

When you are not confident with some online merchants, you can use virtual credit card to help you prevent any credit card fraud.

I just received an email from discover card stating that they are going to offer $100 cash back bonus for the discover business card. It’s really great for them to offer sign-up bonus for their potential business card members. Because business cards usually offer better cash back rewards than consumer credit cards, business card issuers often don’t offer sign-up bonus for their customers.

This discover business card features:

• $100 Cashback Bonus when you apply now**
• 0% Intro APR* on Balance Transfers and Card Purchases for 12 months
• 5% Cashback Bonus® on office supplies, 2% on gas, up to 1% on all other purchases
• Earn 5 to 20% Cashback Bonus at top retailers through Discover’s exclusive online shopping site
• No Annual Fee
• Fee-free Purchasechecks that earn Cashback Bonus®. to pay merchants who don’t accept credit cards
• Free employee cards with customizable limits and monthly reporting on their spending

Apply Now!

If you are always buying office suppliers from Office Depot, Staples, Office Max etc, this card can really save you money. If you are short of money, the 0% APR on purchases and balance transfer is a good fit to you. Through ShopDiscover program, which offers minimum 5% cash back from many top online retailers, you can save huge amount of money. The $100 bonus will be credited to your account once you spend $1,000 with 3 months after account opening.

Other business cards offering sign-up bonus are: Citi Business Card with ThankYou Network ($150) and Starwood Preferred Guest Business Card from American Express ($100). If you are interested in applying for a business card, you can read this post.

From low fees to frequent-flyer miles: 7 credit card will give you something back.

1. Household/Orcahrd Bank Platinum Card with 2% Cash Back

Both cards can give you 2% cash back for everything! Yes, it’s true. They are much better than those cards with only 1% cash back. If you have one of these card, your minimum cash back is 2%. You can selectively use this card and other cash back cards to achieve better cash back rate. Actually, both Household Bank and Orchard Bank are owned and operated by HSBC Bank. HSBC is new in the credit card market. Their targeted consumers are those with low credit scores but have the ability to pay their debits. Previously, this card can is by invitation only. If you receive an mail invitation to apply for this credit card, you are guaranteed to get approved. But you have to make sure that there’s a “2% cash back” in your invitation letter. Recently, Household Bank is promoting the visa version. You are allowed to have one master card and one visa card. Online application site is www.hbaccept.com (for those received the invitations).

2. Blue Cash from American Express

Once you’ve charged $6,500 in a year, you can get 5% back on grocery, drugstore and gas purchases and 1.5% on everything else vs. 1% for the average cash-back card. (Below $6,500 you earn 0.5% to 1%). Blue credits the cash to your account automatically, so you don’t risk leaving rewards on the table. As stated at the very beginning, the power of the Blue Cash Card appears when you spend more than $6,500 in this card in a year. In a word, this is a for those big spenders. Another feature worths mention is this card offers 4.99% APR for balance transfer for life! if you are short of cash, you can borrow money from this card. The 4.99$ APR is much lower than those payday loans.

3. Discover More Card

The most attractive part of this card is it offers 5% cash back on selected categories which are changing every quarter. plus Discover is working to offer better cash back rewards program for its newly launched ShopDiscover Rewards Program. You can also get about 5%~15% for shopping through ShopDiscover. The other feature is the low fee balance transfer offer. Not many issuers still offer 0% interest for 12 months on balance transfers. Discover does. Plus, it caps its balance-transfer fee at $75 vs. $99 or more at other banks. You’d better pay off all your balance before the introductory period expires, but even if you can’t or don’t, the interest rate is not that terrible: It starts at a respectable 10.99%.

4. Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express

This is a great hotel rewards card for those who want to get rewarded for free hotel stays. The minimum points you need to redeem for a free night stay at Starwood Hotels is 2,000 points. The sign-up bonus for this card is 10,000 points. You can redeem for an Amazon.Com gift certificate for only 9,000 starpoints. The gift certificate will be shipped to you via UPS next day air. (super quick!!!) You can also transfer those starpoints to other rewards programs like AAdvantage miles.

5. Citi PremierPass Card-Elite Level

You earn one point for every dollar charged, plus a point for every mile you fly. (Note: miles can not be redeemed as ThankYou points before your spending match the miles.) You can double your points at supermarkets, drugstores, gas stations, commuter transportation and parking merchants. Redeem points for plane tickets on any airline; you won’t face blackout dates and restricted seats. If your spending can match your fly miles. You can redeem those fly miles to thankyou points. That’s why this card is best is best to buy flight tickets. The rate starts at 10.24%. Recently this card is offering 20,000 sign-up bonus after 4600 in purchases are made with 3 months of account opening.

Discover just updated their website few days ago. Their url is www.discover.com now although the previous url: www.dicovercard.com is still available. To be honest, I really like current design in my account. Another feature I want to mention here is they just launched the ShopDiscover program. ShopDiscover is a rewards program which will give you extra rewards in addition to the cash back or other rewards you can accumulate for online shopping through ShopDiscover. For example, if you place an order at www.circuitcity.com through the link at ShopDiscover (in your account), you can get extra 5% cash back plus up to 1% cash back you can get for using your discover card. SO it’s a rewards shopping program similar to Chase Rewards Plus and Citi Cash Bonus Center. The only difference here is ShopDiscover offer better cash back than other rewards programs. For example, Dell home offers 5% cash back at ShopDiscover while Chase Rewards Plus and Citi Cash Bonus Center only offer 2% cash back. Apple store offers 5% cash back at ShopDiscover, Chase Rewards Plus only offer 4% while Citi Cash Bonus Center only offers 1% cash back. GNC.Com offer 15% cash back at ShopDiscover, Chase Rewards Plus only offers 6% cash back and Citi Cash Bonus Center offers 8.5% cash back. You can also find out that ShopDiscover program offers better cash back rate from HP, OfficeDepot, SonyStyle, TigerDirect and other famous online shopping websites. It’s really great!

The only drawback for ShopDiscover is that due to the high cash back rate, there are only limited merchants you can choose from. For example, Staples.Com and BestBuy.Com are not offering cash back at ShopDiscover while you can still get about 3% cash back from Chase Rewards Plus and Citi Cash Bonus Center.

Another good news is cash back Bonus (ShopDiscover) offers are valid for all Discover Cards that offer a Cashback Bonus Rewards program. Double Miles offers are valid for Miles by Discover CardDiscover Business Miles and card members. (Chase Rewards Plus is dedicated to Chase Freedom card members.) You don’t have to enroll in a special website like Chase Rewards Plus and Citi Cash Bonus Center. The ShopDiscover link is available at your online account. All you have to do is login your online account and click the related retailer’s link. It’s much easier and safer. The cash back will be accumulated in your regular Cash Back bonus program. You can redeem the Cashback Bonus you earn through ShopDiscover just like your regular Cashback Bonus. If you choose to redeem your cash back for a gift certificate, your cash back bonus will be increased or even doubled! (That’s why I like Discover More Card.)

As far as I know, Discover is working hard to get more online merchants. They want to give our customers better options for using Discover Card. Discover is also committed to offer minimum 5% cash back for their Discover card members.

I think it’s necessary to let you know the Discover More Card new “Get More Program” calender for 2008. Although you can get 5% cash back on certain categories which will be changing quarterly, you have to register your discover more card first. Otherwise, you can’t get 5% cash back on the pre-determined categories.

January-March 2008

Airlines, Cruises, Hotels, Car Rentels

April-June 2008

Home, Apparel

July-September 2008

Gas, Hotels

October-December 2008

Restaurants, Movies Read more…

One of my friends sent me an email about the new Discover More Card offer. This time they are offering $100 after spending $500. Previously Discover More offered $40 or $60 after spending $500 on the new approved card. It’s a great deal right now!

You can apply the card at apply.discovercard.com or by phone at 800-210-9022. You have to mention the invitation code: DAFM. You can get 5% cash back on selected categories which are changing quarterly. Please keep the photograph for future use.

I just got the information about the Discover Card promotion with shopping malls in US. It seems Discover does this promotion every year. The promotion is quite simple.

Get a $20 discover gift card for every $200 in purchases made with your discover card at participating shopping center between 11/1/2007 and 12/31/2007. You have to present your original receipt to the shopping center customer service or discover card booth. They will give you a $20 discover gift card and put a stamp on your receipt. Remember you don’t have to put the receipt there. You can still keep it. So maybe you can return the stuffs to the stores and make $20. However, you can only get maximum 5 gift cards. It seems Discover is going to warm up the shopping season now. For details about this promotion, please see here.