12mo ago

Privacy.com in Europe?

Is there something similar to privacy.com in Europe so I don’t have to enter my credit card information everywhere? Or another way to buy stuff online privately on many different stores and websites?

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Not really the same thing, but Revolut has disposable virtual cards that you can use (but it's a full-fledged bank).
Some apps like MBWay in Portugal also allow you to create these virtual cards, but it requires a Portuguese bank account.
- Most online places are now aware of Revolut's disposable CC numbers and reject them. They haven't worked for at least a year now. They're basically useless.
  Edit: I should clarify: all CC payments nowadays use tokenization. The website doesn't get the CC details, they get a token issued by your bank. The token can be one-time use, or recurrent. Naturally, for one-time cards Revolut issues one-time tokens. The problem is that many websites have caught up to it and require indefinitely-valid, recurrent tokens for any payment. I don't think this is something that Revolut can solve on their side.
  
  What a bummer, I used the disposable CCs with revolution a decade ago and was thinking of going back to it...no point if they're not usable anymore.though.
  
  While the disposable cards might not always work, you can always create a regular virtual card and delete/freeze it afterwards. Not sure if there are any limits tho
I'm not familiar with any service that works at the international level, but over in Portugal, the biggest ATM network, Multibanco, has had a service called MB NET (now integrated with the newer MB WAY app), which allows you to create temporary cards with 3 different behaviours: one-time, monthly, multiple uses. The first one always has 1 month of validity, while the others only expire after a year, and you can define a maximum capacity.
It works perfectly well in foreign online services, but you have to have a card from one of the associated banks (presumably from their Portuguese branch?).
You could buy more from places that support Bitcoin lightning or Monero, which gives you a lot more privacy. You can buy gift cards online with those currencies and then spend those gift cards at major online retailers.
not thats its private, but the virtual cards from wise are nice. can be frozen and sometimes you can change the billing addeess and "save" taxes.
I believe it is not possible to have it due to EU regulations, or at least there aren't any proper ones right now. You can read some discussions about this on Privacy Guides's discourse, like this one for example: https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/card-masking-tool/15342
I think the TLDR is: use your own bank's card, as you will always end up with a card which is tied to your identity, so better give that info to as few bank institutions as possible, you gain no advantage by signing up with someone new. On the other hand, if you need to convert and the fees are atrocious, then you could look into Revolut and others like that, but that doesn't really help your privacy, no matter how many virtual cards you make, since they're all in your name anyways
Do people in europe use credit cards? I remember hearing it wasn't popular as much as the US. Isn't debit more common?
- It mostly depends where. French use it for almost anything, even more since COVID. On the other hand, Germans have a tradition to prefer cash.
  
  I think bank transfers are more popular in Northern Europe. I only use a credit card if I want additional buyer protection / insurance from my bank.
- We use them to pay online, of course. But the payment mechanism is different because most of the time they're debit accounts not credit.
- Depends where you go. My Czech bank card is a debit card with a number on it that you can use like a credit card. Dutch banks don't have this and we use different online payment methods. I never really needed a credit card for anything (until I traveled in France) so the price to have one is not worth it.
- Here you get a debit card by default with your bank account, and that one's free. You might get a credit one, but credit limits are typically low. I lived in Canada for 9 years and by the time I left I had a CC with a limit of 26k CAD. Here my Spanish credit card has a limit of 1.2k euros, and I've had it for quite a long time.
  In Spain at least there's quite a lot of confusion with this. People call any card type a "credit card", even debit ones.
- No. It’s not as popular. In Germany most have a giro-card, but credit cards are becoming more popular. Many still prefer cash though.
  
  In Germany most have a girl-card
  I assume autocorrect screwed you?
  For anyone else reading this: no, there is no such thing as girl-cards.
- Can't use cash online, (nearly*) anywhere.
  Mullvad is the only service I know that accepts payment through mailed cash.
Not sure if it helps, but Capital One has digital cards you can create on the fly.
- My wife has tried using those and they’ve never worked a single time.
In Spain at least I have two small alternatives to this:
Paypal (I don't like it too much, but it works fine).
A prepaid credit card offered through my bank. Good for sites that don't look too trustworthy but I need to buy from. I just activate it, load it with whatever amount I need, I make the transaction, then disable it again. Even if it gets leaked no one can take any money out.
For everything else I have a virtual credit card number that's not dynamic, but at least it's something I use exclusively for online stuff.

30 comments