I use PayPal to be the middle man to protect my credit card information when I purchase items online.

Of course I have grown less fond of PayPal and their scammy behavior (plus the password limit is 20, wtf?)

My question; is there an alternative to paypal to buy things online (without crypto as not all stores take such things), such as privacy.com (but for Europe).

Correct mw if im wrong, but I believe privacy.com is for US, Canada region.

My bank doesn’t offer virtual credit cards sadly.

  • gila@lemm.eeEnglish
    13·
    1 day ago

    I’ve used wise.com for this sort of thing for many years (since they used to be called transferwise). Can spin up as many virtual visa cards as you need (I think it’s max 10 active at once). I also have a physical debit card with them which will do conversions at foreign points of sale from my local currency using the mid market rate and fees much lower than visa/master. Never had an issue with them, though this is more a sort of obfuscation rather than privacy

  • Brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    6·
    1 day ago

    My bank doesn’t offer virtual credit cards sadly.

    If you’re just looking for virtual cards, could you just apply for a credit card with that capability? In the U.S. there are credit card providers that can do that, not sure about Canada but I figured it’d be the same there.

    Otherwise the comment from /u/brrt@sh.itjust.works is spot on, all the phone apps like Google Pay already virtualize your card number so you’re not actually sharing your full details with the merchant. Or make your own prepaid debit card via a separate checking account you put a bit of spending money into.

      • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
        17·
        23 hours ago

        Revolut was recently in the news for stopping working on degoogled OSes. And judging by the comments, it is very app-dependent.

        • PunkiBas@lemmy.world
          4·
          19 hours ago

          Yes, you can’t use it without the app, I’m on a degoogled android and had to drop them when they made that change.

        • LiamTheBoxEnglish
          1·
          15 hours ago

          Damn, can’t you even spoof the operating system name?

          I heard of monzo working with virtual cards but you might need to pay a subscription with other goodies

          • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
            1·
            13 hours ago

            I think Magisk could allow fooling Play Integrity in this case, but not everyone wants to root their phones.

    • Samsy
      31·
      1 day ago

      Looks like we are doomed to use PayPal in Europe. What’s the hurdle to create a PayPal alternative?

      • RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works
        51·
        1 day ago

        The hurdle is that Europe tends to adopt things that are successful in the US, because it is convenient. Even most services and startups based in Europe are more or less copies of US products, with some notable exceptions of highly specialised applications. This unfortunate trend started in the 1970s, when the largest industrial players in Europe thought semiconductors were just a fad and consequently lost their competitive edge. It was seen as less risky to invest in commercially proven concepts than to actually innovate. This continues to bite us in the ass to this day.

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
      1·
      3 hours ago

      privacy protection with a service that’s only accessible through an ownership controlling, datamining-filled smartphone app? it was just a joke, right?

      if they do this on your phone, what are they doing with your transaction data…

  • brrt@sh.itjust.works
    61·
    1 day ago

    I have a second bank account with a credit card for daily spending and online purchases. It only has a certain amount of money I expect to need for the month. If I need to make bigger purchases I’ll have to transfer the funds to it first.

    Also things like Apple/Google/Amazon Pay hide CC info so you could use those instead when they are available.