Bank account / service that allows you to instantly create virtual VISA #s?

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Kiopa_Matt

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May 13, 2011
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I'm quite certain this doesn't exist, but would definitely be helpful if it does. Does anyone know of a bank or merchant service of some sort that will allow me to maintain a company balance, but via online banking allow me to instantly generate new VISA #s, and allocate funds to them?

For example, say I have a guy do some marketing for me. Instead of holding him back with me having to pay every individual invoice, I'd rather just login to online banking, allocate some money to a new VISA#, hand that card# to him, and say, "have fun! mail your invoices here for record keeping, and can't wait to see the results". Same goes if I have a development project I want someone to head up, or hosting infrastructure I want in place, or whatever. I don't want to sit around and micro-manage every detail, and have to get involved because someone wants to spend $100.

Basically, budget allocation, but being able to give a virtual VISA# with each so they can actually purchase the shit they need. Does anyone know if something like that exists? Obviously it does for companies like Exxon, but I mean small guys like myself? I know I can do it for about $30k setup-fee, but that's overkill for what I'm looking for. Anything for the small guy yet?
 


Just open a business account for any credit card and give him the number... wouldn't that work?
 
brentb said:
Just open a business account for any credit card and give him the number... wouldn't that work?
Click to expand...

Not quite, because I don't want to give anyone the main card#. "Here's a card# with $20k limit, but don't spend more than $2k please", kinda thing. No good.

For example, I contract out to someone for marketing. Still testing the waters with him, but nonetheless, he needs to pay for media buys, and whatever other products / services he deems necessary. As it stands, he has to contact me every time something needs to get paid. Either that, or he submits an expense report to me, and I reimburse him, but that's definitely not going to work.

I'd rather login to online banking, goto my "Create Sub-Account" menu, generate a new VISA#, and transfer $2000 from my main account over to it. From there, I can just give him the VISA#, and say "buy what you need. send me the invoices for record keeping". See what I mean?

I'm not giving anyone access to my accounts, and I'm not sending the moeny outright and saying "spend this wisely, ok?", and I don't want to be bothered everytime someone wants to make a $25 purchase. I'd like to allocate a set amount to them, but with a VISA# attached, so they have full freedom to do their job properly, I can't get (too) fucked, and I have full transaction history of what each individual purchased, since they all have their own VISA#.

This is all easily possible, but it's about a $30k setup fee right now through guys like m2-corp.com. Anything available for the smaller guys yet?
 
BigWill's suggestion is the method that I use. It's not a perfect system but it does hedge some of the risk. You can set a limit for the card and expiration date. So, if you're on a 60-day contract with a vendor, you can set the card to expire after 60 days and not worry about any future charges.

I've been using this system for some of my vendors and people that I might not have 100% confidence in.
 
I have to look but Citibank and some others allow you to create temporary account numbers for online purchases. Used those years ago but don't know if they are still available.

Just checked... Citicards has a 'Get virtual account number' on the toolbar which lets you limit transactions etc..

Just give him the name on the card, number and cvv stuff and you are done.
 
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