Alternatives To Paypal's Virtual Credit Card Service?

An anonymous reader writes "Paypal has quietly killed the Paypal plugin and the related virtual-card service. The service generated on-the-fly, one-time-use credit card numbers. When I called in and inquired about the service, I was told that the service has been discontinued, but may be relaunching something similar depending on interest. They are treating inquiries as a sort of petition, taking down names and contact info. The forums seem to be a lost cause, as no Paypal reps have replied to the numerous posts regarding virtual cards being discontinued. Does anyone know of a good alternative source of one-time-use credit card numbers?"

Re:A regular bank account?

[mysidia]

The advise to youngsters against taking credit cards is flawwed. Because of how the current financial industry and credit reporting works.

If you never get a credit card or loan of any type, you will not have a credit history. This will be very bad later, when you need to apply for credit or a loan, you will be denied, or require a cosigner, and pay a much higher interest rate..

Unless the youngster is going to be independently wealthy, and never need to borrow money for the rest of their lives (Going to buy your house outright with cash, going to buy all your cars outright with cash, no mortgages, no loans), the sooner you start a credit history, and the higher quality the history you establish, the better (more financially beneficial) terms you will be able to negotiate in the future, when you need a loan.

I would suggest any youngster get at least one credit card, but be very careful and judicious in the management of it.

Even if that means you get a debit card, and leave the credit card locked away in a safe, and only use it once a month.

For the most part, it's beneficial for just about anyone to have at least one CC.

Will never deal with Paypal

[syousef]

I've had what I consider a very bad experience with Paypal and now I only use them begrudgingly if I have no other alternative. I consider their assurances technically accurate but due to their execution to be of no use whatsoever to me. So I treat all transactions put through Paypal as high risk "might not get what you pay for" transactions. If I were looking for a credit card, I'd rather poke out both my eyes than get one with that company. I don't think I'm alone.

Re:A regular bank account?

[phantomfive]

Credit cards are so much better than debit cards for online purchases, or anything really. If someone steals money from your debit card, it is your money that is gone. If someone steals money from your credit card, it is someone else's money that is gone.

Re:Will never deal with Paypal

[thegarbz]

Well duh - set up a socks proxy to a server in a friendly country.

Are you actually saying that your solution to a rubbish company is to use stupid workarounds so you can keep using that company? I ... simply don't know what to say to that.

Re:Discover card

[0100010001010011]

Could you get the IT guys to fix the massive error when entering passwords?

My password is at the limit for the discover card website, which I think was 10 or 12 letters, so my discover password is:
abcdefghijkl.

Now if I go to the virtual credit card login, which is the flash based entry as long as I start off with abcdefghijkl, it doesn't matter what I enter after that:
abcdefghijkl938498719823 and it still lets me in.