Why You Should Use A Virtual Credit Card Number For Free Trials

While I take many steps to ensure my data safety on the internet, I have always believed that getting your credit card data hacked is, at some level, one of the costs of doing business in the virtual world: it will happen eventually, and hopefully you have maximum safeguards in place to make that as painless as possible.

Because of that not-terribly-wise worldview, I have largely ignored the credit cards that let you generate virtual numbers to ensure no one can hack your actual card and bank info because the seller doesn’t get your actual card number. But Lee Rosen over at Divorce Discourse has finally given me a compelling reason to use virtual card numbers: being able to forget, with impunity, to cancel free trials.

Well, what if you used a [virtual credit card number] for a software service?

It’s the perfect solution. You use it, and the service charges you the fee once. Then, when it’s time to renew, the company runs your card and it gets declined. Excellent. Now it’s got to hunt you down for your new credit card number. The burden to cancel has shifted. Problem solved.

I could have saved a fortune over the years if only I had thought of this.

Featured image: “Security locks with password on piles of credit cards / Credit card data encryption concept” from Shutterstock.

Why You Should Use A Virtual Credit Card Number For Free Trials was originally published on Lawyerist.