Virtual plastic card. Instructions

You won’t surprise anyone with an ordinary plastic card now – even in the dead of night at a kiosk with shawarma, we are able to pay with plastic. This is not some kind of Germany where you still have to look for payment with a plastic card, and almost never saw Apple Pay in your eyes. Paying for hours sellers drives in a complete stupor. But today we will talk about virtual plastic – what is it, what does it eat with and why do we need it?

Virtual plastic card. What is it and for what?

virtual plastic card

A virtual card is intended mainly for paying for purchases on the Internet, however, physical plastic can also be issued for such cards – so that you can pay directly at the store or withdraw money. To pay in off-line stores, in my opinion, it’s enough to connect contactless payment, and I have never had a chance to withdraw money.

Such a card has all the same attributes as ordinary plastic – number, expiration date, CVC, membership in a Visa or Master Card, but most often they do not have a name and surname.

What is the plus of such cards?

Card issue speed. Registration takes literally five minutes, you save the card to your phone and you can use it almost immediately.
Now the market in Russia is still considered undeveloped and the majority (88.8% of the population use plastic cards to withdraw cash, not for payments!). That is, the era of plastic cards, including virtual ones, will only grow.
Such cards can be configured with the minimum necessary balance, that is, attackers will not be able to steal a lot of money from the card.
Since this is a new service in the field of electronic commerce, now issuing banks are trying to attract very good services and cashbacks – you need to use it!

Now a little specifics!

In order not to accuse me of advertising – I will talk about what I use myself. My e-wallet has 6 plastic cards, 2 of them are virtual. And I use all.

Virtual is a Megafon and Yandex Money card.

Yandex Money. It is tied to a Yandex wallet with any level of identification (depending on this, you will have different limits on payment and transfers). Replenished wallet – replenished the balance of the card. Deducted from the card – the wallet has decreased. There is no commission, service is free, cashback points. This card is a payment service on which Sberbank and Yandex work together.

Personally, it’s convenient for me that I get one of my salaries for working on the Internet to the Yandex Money wallet. Transferring from a wallet to other bank cards with a fee, so it’s convenient for me to pay with a Yandex virtual card and spend my salary. There was still no place that I would not accept payment on this card.
     Megaphone Card (a joint project of Megaphone and Bank Round). The biggest disadvantage of this card is that it is available only to Megafon subscribers. But I have been a subscriber for many years, so I use this card very actively. Plus – up to 10% on the balance on the card. This is rarely seen now. Cashback – up to 5-7% in money. Great offer. Replenish the card by paying for mobile communications in any way – the account is common. Bonuses – free megabytes for purchases (10 MB for 100 rubles). The cost of the service is free when spending more than 3,000 rubles a month or from 49 rubles (depending on the tariff, I have an “average” and 149 rubles a month, but I make sure that the service is free).

     Also, Sberbank, Pochta-Bank, QIWI, Russian Standard, MTS Bank, Vostochny Bank have virtual cards.

     Experts note that the most popular are Yandex Money, Megaphone and QIWI. If this topic is interesting, I’ll talk about how to get the most out of these cards!