Virtual cards are nothing new. Axis bank had it from a long time (Axis bank e-wallet) and most other banks offer them too. But when the country’s largest bank introduces the feature, it is certainly worthy of a note. SBI has today announced the availability of ‘Generating a virtual card’ via its Internet Banking portal (in the ‘Requests’ section).
Customers of the bank who have Internet Banking access (with transaction rights) can generate a temporary Visa debit card (valid for a single transaction or 48 hours, whichever happens first) for use with online merchants accepting Visa cards. These type of virtual cards are popular in that you don’t have to reveal your details to the merchant.
Customers can generate a virtual card worth anything between Rs.100 and 50000. There is no limit on number of such cards that a customer can generate in a single day and worth noting, there is also NO card fee.
As with physical Visa cards, your virtual card will have a 16 digit number, expiry date, CVV number. As required by the new RBI regulations, to finalize any online transaction, you will be required to enter the One Time Password (OTP) that will be sent to the registered mobile during every merchant payment.
So where can you use this card?
At any online website which accepts Visa card payments. Though, if the website also offers payment through SBI Internet Banking, you can simply use that instead of creating a virtual card.
I don’t see any use at all. I can simply use Net banking.