Potentially stupid question: if you cancel the virtual credit card, can't the company then send your debt to collections resulting in a bigger headache?
What debt? Typically when you sign up for a service with a free trial, they charge you before each paid period. You get X days for free as part of the trial, then at the end of the trial they attempt to charge you for the next month of service. When that charge declines, they just don't provide you with the next month of service, and all they've given you is the free trial which incurs no debt.
If you're receiving a service at cost but agreeing to pay for it later, then yes they could send you to collections if you refuse to pay it, but that model is only really used for a select few services (some phone plans come to mind). The vast majority of online services are prepay.
The EMVCo link is actually more interesting. The payment tokenization scheme means that the merchant never gets your card number (the PAN), they get a token.
> EMV Payment Tokenisation enhances transaction security by removing the most
valuable data to a fraudster within a transaction, the primary account number (PAN), and replacing it with a unique alternative value, a payment token.
> This reduces the value of payments information stolen in the event of a data
compromise, as a payment token should not be able to be used beyond the
environment in which it was intended. Payment tokens support both face-to-face
(F2F) and remote payment transactions.
Basically, if Amazon leaks my credit card data, thieves can’t use it because the number is associated with my Amazon account only. That one token can be cancelled and the next time I buy something a new one is issued and I don’t have to replace my credit card just because one merchant leaked my info.
no, this is bad advice . Credit cards are better because the dispute process is more favorable to buyers and longer dispute window. A debit card has worse buyer protection.
I was about to post this. The usual HNers with nothing better to do will warn about how you're still liable, they can come after you, yada yada yada.
Ignore them. Just give a virtual credit card to any subscription service, and set a credit limit on it. Problem solved. If they try to keep charging your card: too bad, the charges are declined.
So I went there and cancelled my account, and they even sent me a "sorry to see you go" message. They definitely got it.
Then they went and charged my card anyway. But it was declined, because I'd closed the privacy.com virtual card I'd given them.
That's why you do this.