[SOLVED] It's all in the detail

[Colin_Thames]

First proper post so please go easy on me! Firstly, I’m excited to see the launch and to getting my hands on a Vitracard. Looking on the site it seems to be a bit thin on information about how the card will work. I’m guessing it’s like Curve, only better, but for anyone unfamiliar to how Curve works there isn’t much. Hopefully you’ll add more as the product offering is finalised…

I also notice a couple of improvement points on the About Us page. For example: “Ever aspect of our system…” This typo is repeated under both Our Vision and Security
And the heading “Our values help us set the bar for good work high”. A better version would be: “Our values help us set the bar high for good work”.

I have no doubt that you’re building things at speed and sometimes the little details get missed. But these little mistakes might put people off trusting you with their financial information. Hope this feedback helps develop a great site that demonstrates your values and professionalism to the full, and pulls in lots of new customers.

Finally, major kudos to you for the openness you have and the involvement of the community. It bodes well for the future that you are already listening.

[Ryan]

Hi Colin!

Thank you for your post.

You are right about the site being a little thin on information right now, but this is to protect our IP before launch.

As we do start launching, our website will be regularly updated with operating information and all good things like that.

Thank you for pointing out these typos - the founding team are not natively English, so as you say they can sometimes get missed - we will get these corrected shortly! (CC @Koray & @Florian)

And again, a massive thanks for you recognising our openness. It’s one thing I bought with me to the team, and will ensure we continue with.

[Zulfia]

Mmm… I personally find virtual cards cool. They will be available from the very beginning:)

And that’s not even saying about … automatic selection (if you prefer not to think too much each time ) and all other features…

[Colin_Thames]

Hi Zulfia
Can you tell us more about how virtual cards work please. I’m struggling to imagine it. I mean, a physical card has a chip for scanning or maybe a magnetic strip (though I gather these are being phased out in UK). By ‘virtual card’ do you mean Apple Pay, Google Wallet etc?

[Ryan]

Hey Colin!

So a virtual card will be linked to your VitraCard.

A virtual payment card, sometimes called a temporary card number or pseudo card number, is a credit or debit card number can be created through a website or mobile app and does not come with a physical card. Virtual payment cards can be utilized for most online purchases. Oftentimes, you can set maximum spend or charge limit on the virtual card to prevent yourself from being overcharged

Virtual cards act like a layer of protection between your funding source and the merchant. They pass any authorized and completed transactions directly on to your funding source (including refunds). These cards can be a buffer against cases when merchants you shop at get breached, merchant overcharges, or grey market subscription scams. They are great to use at popular websites where you have recurring payments, so you don’t have to change the number if your card details are compromised elsewhere.

While not straight away; these will also eventually be able to be added to Apple Pay/Google Pay.

[Colin_Thames]

Thanks for the explanation. Brilliant idea. I’d heard about temporary card numbers (and email addresses) but didn’t make the link with ‘virtual’. Can a virtual card number also have a time/date limit after which it can’t be charged?

[Ryan]

I’m not sure if we will have this feature available immediately, but we can definitely look at implementing something like that in the future.

[Zulfia]

Hello Colin,

Oh no ! Virtual card is not Apple Pay/google pay

I usually use virtual cards if I am not so sure about an online-shop I am going to buy from as it’s usually very easy to replace or block a virtual card.

It’s basically a NORMAL card, but you can ONLY use it in Online shops (to buy anything in the internet ,for example plain tickets… or anything at all ). It works just the same as your physical card would.

So you would usually use it when you don’t want to share your REAL physical card information to buy something online.

Revolut actually has virtual cards, and they give them out for free as far as I remember! Definitely try it out ! It’s actually a very good thing.

So with VitraCash you would get 2 cards from very beginning. One real card ,which is delivered to you door and one virtual card ,which only exist in the app. Whenever you don’t want to share your real-card information online -you use a virtual card.

I guess there are many more use-cases for virtual cards, but I only use it for this purpose usually

A cool hack:
People often get a free trial for Netflix, Spotify or Amazon ….and actually forget to cancel the subscription, so they get charged, when the free trial ends, even if they don’t really use the service anymore.
I usually use a virtual card for all free trials …and replace it immediately in Revolut …
So the company would not be able to change me a penny as my virtual card doesn’t exist anymore
(I am not advising anyone to do so)

PS:

There are also virtual shopping cards, which only valid for ONE transaction and then get replaced immediately (also available in Revolut)

WARNING
I am not sure if easy replacing of virtual cards will be available from the very beginning in VITRACASH. But I guess so……

And yes, you could add a virtual card to your Apple Pay and use it in stores this way if you want to.

[Colin_Thames]

Hi Zulfia
You’re right that is a cool hack. Very useful. I hope Vitra will have one use virtual cards as an option.