Comments on: privacy through prepaid credit cards

By: David

David — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:17:25 +0000

Thanks all! The article and comments are entertaining. I’ve bought a Vanilla Visa.

By: anon

anon — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:20:05 +0000

Thanks Touch, I should have known PayPal couldn’t be trusted to do anything anonymously. Looks like will have to use a different route now. Oh well, at least you saved me the trouble of buying a card that would likely be rejected. I wont be providing them with ANY PI, period :)

By: Gnostradamus

Gnostradamus — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:24:01 +0000

It seems there are two different Simon cards, American Express and Visa. The latter has a penalty of yearly inactivity. But are there any other differences?

By: Touch

Touch — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 03:05:00 +0000

Amendment to the PayPal User Agreement

Effective Date: Apr 01, 2012

Print • Amendment to the PayPal User Agreement

Effective Date: April 1, 2012 •Section 2.3 of the User Agreement (Identity Authentication) is being amended because we are making changes to our customer identification program as a result of changes in the law. Section 2.3 will now read:

2.3 Identity Authentication. You authorize PayPal, directly or through third parties, to make any inquiries we consider necessary to validate your identity. This may include asking you for further information, requiring you to provide your date of birth, a taxpayer identification number and other information that will allow us to reasonably identify you, requiring you to take steps to confirm ownership of your email address or financial instruments, ordering a credit report, or verifying your Information against third party databases or through other sources. We may also ask to see your driver’s license or other identifying documents at any time. If you use certain PayPal Services federal law requires that PayPal verify some of your Information. PayPal reserves the right to close, suspend, or limit access to your Account and/or the PayPal Services in the event we are unable to obtain or verify this Information.

•Section 4.12 of the User Agreement (Micropayments for Digital Goods) is being updated to increase the maximum amount received in Taiwan New Dollars (TWD) that may be subject to a reversal without requiring a Dispute escalation from 10.00 TWD to 249.00 TWD.

By: Rockets

Rockets — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:32:49 +0000

I want a major international credit card that I can pay cash regarding and have overall anonymity together with. Other than the particular vanilla, it would be better to convince several homeless guy to register a gift credit card. I would have to go with all the vanilla visa, u can get it anywhere, overall anonymity if u pay out cash, fee’s are well worth the price, if u consider the options, they don’t go up real high though, but many suppliers is going to take numerous payments if u call to be able to order. Also, you should be aware, that making use of pay out pal to utilize gift cards internationally, is just not anonymous. The government can get usage of that. One thing I do suggest, is to talk with the particular retailer to see if they will approve the card you are planning on.

By: anonKin

anonKin — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:04:38 +0000

didn’t pay pal change all it’s privacy policies last month? to be able to notify you about your expenditures AND THE IRS about your activities with paypal. no sign TOS no can use???

By: namerequired

namerequired — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:27:34 +0000

Stored value cards fail to provide privacy so this whole article is worthless.

By: Curry Us

Curry Us — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:24:48 +0000

Since I didn't see any mention of expiration dates in regards to the Simon card, can I safely assume that the has no expiration date?

(Naturally I'll double check this before purchase, but to get one is a bit out of the way so I wanted to verify this before I make the effort. I have no immediate needs for the card but like the idea of having it on hand for possible future need.)

By: L.A.

L.A. — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:46:00 +0000

I am looking for a reloadable Credit card that I can reload my throw away phone. But, not online. I want to call the cell company with the Card # and be on my way without anyone knowing who I am. Can anyone help? Thanks L.A.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:16:00 +0000

VanillaOne are great. I’m doing a a credit card payment system project, and testing with anonymous cards gets me around PCI issues, and is just plain smart. VanillaOne has been great — they honor the full reversals against authorizations I have posted. But MasterCard’s from mygiftcardsite.com have been a pain: 1) they increase the authorization amount by 15%, 2) they don’t honor reversals, 3) as far as I can tell, they don’t expire authorizations after the usual 2-5 days — 16 days & counting on the first one posted, and still it has not expired. None of these 3 facts are in their terms of service. I think they’re just stealing my money. Any suggestions for good MasterCard anonymous cards?