24th July 2002
Who's the Gnomie with a tip regarding online credit card purchases? Why, it's good ol' Murray Freeman! "Hey, Chris... your paragraph regarding tips on Online Shopping was excellent. But, there is something new out there and I don't remember you mentioning it in the past, but it's worth adding as the 11th Online Shopping Tip. Some cards, such as Discover and cards issued by MBNA offer a free service that allows you to request a "one-time" card number that only works once. Thus, after you have used it to make a purchase, it can't be used again... ever! Your request only takes a couple of minutes to process and some even do auto-fill when you are entering the card number to pay for your online purchase. I've been using this for about 6 months, and it's easy and apparently safe. You even have the ability to put a maximum $ (dollar amount) limit on the single purchase card and even a time limit. You can of course use it over the telephone as well." What a great tip Murray! So far I have verified that Discover does offer a single use card number, as long as you are a card-carrying member. I was not able to find any information on MBNA's Web site that says they support single use card numbers, but it's definitely a worthy concept for those Web visitors who are leery about online purchases.