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Now can we please get one-time credit card authorization?

You mean like my Discover More Credit Card offers me?

You have the option of re-using the same one for a retailer or just continually requesting a new one if your dealings with them are infrequent or shady.

https://deskshop.discovercard.com/thincard/main_thinclient.html

https://deskshop.discovercard.com/thincard/thinclient.html

You might not have a Discover Discover card, but a Discover card issued by another bank.

I wrote a javascript bookmark so I don't have to sign it just to open another window.

https://www.accountonline.com/Athena/PageServlet/thinclient.prod.xsl?loginlib=loginlib&issuerid=1&brand=Citi is Citi Mastercard's.

Discover Secure Online Account Numbers

Discover Card still offers Secure Online Account Numbers using either a web or desktop app. http://www.discovercard.com/customer-service/security/create-soan.html

Citibank, Bank of America, Discover and Paypal all offer disposable card numbers. American Express used to, but apparently stopped around 2004.

Discover passes all these, except for being Discover. I'm able to use mine for 99% of purchases.

http://www.discovercard.com/customer-service/security/create-soan.html

Ever since I found out about Discover Card Secure Number I use that for all my online purchases to help reduce the risk of my real number being stolen. Complete Fraud Protection What this does is provide a one time use credit card number and CID number. Sure you can dispute false charges with your credit card company but who really wants to deal with that and any headaches.

I think the next line of defense in that sort of thing, provided it isn't shut down by TPTB as facilitating "terrorist money laundering" is to buy gift cards from credit card issuers that look just like regular debit cards to an online merchant but are actually pre-paid debit cards. These can be issued in any name (so far) and don't require identity verification for that name. So if they put a collection on the credit report of Mickey Mouse, so be it.

I noticed that Discover cards seem to have an interesting protection feature as well- disposable electronically generated card numbers for individual transactions. Seems ideal to me.

http://www.discovercard.com/deskshop/

Francis

I have used gnucash for over a year now, and as soon as I upgraded to 2.0 I set up automatic banking. It works great, I can download transactions and check balances for my credit cards (discover, citi bank, capital one), and my bank (charles schwab bank). I force gnucash to ask me for a password, but otherwise it is a button click.

The only issue is none of the banks really advertise the URL you need to use and type into gnucash. For example, discover card uses https://ofx.discovercard.com/, but good luck finding that on their site anywhere.

And citi bank you need to use
https://secureofx2.bankhost.com/citi/cgi-forte/ofx _rt?servicename=ofx_rt&pagename=ofx%22

I found those by searching on google.

But in any case, gnucash is a great program, in most cases better than the commercial alternatives.

If you consider giving your credit card information to potentially shady overseas organizations "safe" sure it's "safe."

What credit card companies offer them and how do you go about making them?

I checked Discover's site (the card I have) and it looks like they offer one-time numbers as a free service. They have some stupid thing that integrates with IE, but there's also a version that lists "Netscape 6.2.something" as a requirement, so that one might work for all graphical browsers that support Flash 5.0 and up.

Would gift cards be the same thing?

Gift cards are definitely not the same thing and have a few drawbacks besides. You'll have to pay for the gift card with cash or money order, few online vendors even have gift cards (stores like Target and Sears probably don't honor gift cards online), and you can never get a cash refund on a gift card.

http://www.discovercard.com/discover/data/disaster relief/

Discover Card has similar capabilities, I think the only difference is that they don't let you set the expiry date. Plus you get cash back on your purchases! (up to 2% if you redeem from one of their "partners" that doubles the reward - I always get Sharper Image gift cards and then sell 'em on eBay)

MBNA has ShopSafe
Citibank has Virtual Account Numbers
Discover has Discover Deskshop
even American Express...

This is *nothing* new

If she uses a discover card they have a program called deskshop that fills out forms and generates single use card numbers to improve security. Works pretty well in my experience.

More details: http://www2.discovercard.com/shopcenter/deskshop/m ain.shtml

US Bank's site is Mozilla friendly too. Not a credit card I know, but they're online banking website is very nice. Good times.

AmDrEx points to Discover Card.

tswinzig says that American Express works fine.

spaceling points out that you could get an AT&T Universal Card.

inepom01 recommends Chase Manhattan.

An Anonymous Coward says that he uses Providian.

Several folks have also pointed out online banks that they use:

• jimmu: Key Bank
• Anonymous Coward: Washington Trust
• Descartes: 1st Financial Bank
• Anonymous Coward: Fleet Boston
• Anonymous Coward: Bank of America
• mcelrath: UmbrellaBank

Discover card works fine for me with Mozilla 1.1

By the way, DiscoverCard.com worked the whole time.

Oh, and my bank ehbt.com works fine. It's a third-party thing from fundsexpress.com FYI.

How about Discover or Master card??

While I won't go as far as the other person who replied to this post, you are indeed somewhat misguided. Although not buying online is perhaps the only 100% solution, akin to abstinence for some people, the use of single-card credit card numbers has made me feel significantly safer about purchasing items online, which I do often.

Sites that I trust (big vendors with reputable histories) get my real credit card number, so that I can buy things instantly from them, but that's only a select few. All of the rest get single-use numbers that are no good for any transactions but that one. Both Visa and Discover support this technology - Visa's version is ShopSafe, while Discover's is Discover Deskshop, both of which are free tools.

Although I buy things frequently, my buying patterns have so far never resulted in my cc info being compromised, and I hope to keep it that way. The biggest scare I ever got was when Egghead admitted to having had cc's stolen, if anyone remembers that story. But mine must not have been one of the ones that they got.

I love my Discover card.

They've flagged me for suspicious use that was *way* outside my buying patterns.

What were my buying patterns? Mostly every day stuff in Mobile, Alabama. However, when I moved to Phoenix, Arizona, they flagged my card twice (easy to reverse for me) because I was purchasing gasoline and paying house bills online.

It was a minor irritation, but with the rampant CC theft and Mexican border crossings, it was worth it to me.

And, if you have a Discover card, and any other credit cards, I highly suggest you get The Register. It's like 20 bucks for 3 years, and it is one phone call to cancel all your credit cards and get new ones when you lose your wallet. Totally worth the cost.

FWIW, using a credit card for most purchases is actually good advice, because it avoids all sorts of frauds and other problems....

That is, of course, unless your credit card company belongs in the same detention hall as PayPal. This is slightly off topic, but consumers should remember not only to do their homework about online payment mechanisms, but their credit cards as well. There are some (IMHO) excellent, consumer-focused companies, and there are some (documented and documented) dishonest companies that suck rocks. If your credit card company tries to push off all of its fraud onto the end consumer, then using it is about as good as using cash.

A quick search online will give you volumes of complaints from customers on various different banks. The trick is to interpret them and pick the least evil.

One thing that consumers can do to protect themselves (beside reading their cardholder's agreement, but I'll assume everybody does that) is to call customer service of your bank before making a risky transaction and ask the representative to spell out your rights. Record the conversation and inform them you are doing so from the outset. That way if they renege, you have something to fight back with.

Another good thing to do is to find and read the Visa or MasterCard regulations (I would post a link, but they seem to be hard to come by) with which issuing banks must comply. Many banks will play upon the ignorance of the consumer and attempt to push responsibility for fraudulent charges onto the cardholder knowing that if they get lucky even 10% of the time, that's a whole lotta $$$ in their pockets.

Caveat cardholder.

American Express offfers disposable card numbers to all card holders (as far as i can tell).

By simply signing in and selecting a card (for those of you with more than one :-) a normal looking card number will be generated along with an expiration date in a small window that pops up.

It's very cool, plus since it relies on Java/Javascript, so nearly all of us can use it (no doofy Window plugin req'd!)

What's stupid is the Discover Card method. They have a "disposable card number" feature, but it requires a really heinous install procedure, plus it does annoying things like create a bookmark for their site in every browser user's bookmarks file (thanks guys!). But wait, theres more! If you want to use this feature, you have to shop within a small number of stores (and i mean small, like ~50 the last time i checked).

Bottom line, disposable credit card technology is great - i've used these disposable numbers for over 6 months, and i'm totally sold on the idea. Now when i purchase something on the web, my Amex number can only be used that one time, after which it is completely invalid for charges. I'll be glad to see all Visa and MC companies follow this someday.

Seen the amihotornot All Your Base site yet?

There are plenty of CC providers that currently offer a feature like this. Discover currently has a system where you login via their web site and they will generate a number for you that "links" back your real account number. The online store you purchased from never has the real number, only Discover. So a hacker would have to get into Discover's database to get your number, and if they do that...well...you are all ready screwed :)

I have all my recurring charges go to my citibank visa, and then i have that account setup that it automatically pays in full every month.
AFAIK, Discover does this also.

I have two credit cards, both which let me pay off my bill online with direct deduction from my checking account. They also keep your current and past statements for perusal. I typically just pay for everything (bills, utilities, food, entertainment, etc) with my credit cards and pay them off completely every month. No stamps, no snail mail, no mess. I don't think i've opened my paper statement for either credit card in months.

Nextcard Visa

Discover