I’ve recently learned about a FREE service called Privacy. Some of you may bank where they let you create “virtual” credit card numbers to be used online rather than your actual number. That’s what Privacy does but it works with ANY bank! Rather than use your real credit card number, which can be abused if a merchant get’s hacked and a bad guy gets a hold of it, your virtual number that is created by Privacy can only be used with that merchant. Each online merchant gets a unique card number, so if you purchase something online somewhere like Walmart or Macy’s, and they get hacked—well that number is only good at the merchant it was created for. The money comes from your bank but the merchant doesn’t even know who your bank is!

Also, you can set limits on each card, like the maximum transaction amount, or how much is spent each month. For example, let’s say you have an Apple account that you use to buy music. With Privacy if someone got into your account, and if you have a $15/month spending limit on your Privacy card number a bad guy can’t buy hundreds of songs with your money.

I use PayPal as much as I can to avoid giving out my real credit card numbers, but now even for places that don’t take PayPal, I have Privacy—and once you set up a merchant it’s done, it’s even easier than PayPal to use. They also have an extension for Chrome and Firefox and apps for Android and iOS. Their security is good, when I installed the app on my phone and logged in, it prompted for a code sent to my email to make sure I wasn’t a hacker.

It’s easy to use AND as a bonus, they’ll give you $5 to use on your first transaction through them.

If you’re wondering “well how do they make money if it’s free?” They DO have paid services (if you need to make 35 cards every month or if you’re a business and have larger needs), but the personal account will always be free. They also make money from the merchant on every transaction just like credit card companies do, so they aren’t selling your information to make money.

So go here to sign up and get some PRIVACY in your online life: https://privacy.com/join/XDWLD