privacy through prepaid credit cards [![/space/mastercard.jpg](/space/mastercard.jpg)](http://mastercard.com/)[![/space/amex.jpg](/space/amex.jpg)](http://americanexpress.com/)[![/space/visa.jpg](/space/visa.jpg)](http://visa.com/) ### Privacy through Prepaid Credit Cards If you've known me for any length of time, you know that I'm a privacy freak. I can't explain why, but I'm hyper-sensitive about giving out personal information. I practically hyperventilate when I consider all the databases of things I've bought, people I've called, and movies I've watched. I may not be especially private about my social life, my body, or my [desktop](http://ryan.barrett.name/desktop.jpg)...but I'll be damned if Safeway needs my phone number or address to sell me a loaf of bread. Unfortunately, this can make life complicated. For example, I get all my mail at work. I don't have a cell phone. I buy plane tickets and hotel rooms with cash. I've frozen my credit report with [all](http://equifax.com/) [three](http://transunion.com/) [agencies](http://experian.com/). It's inconvenient, but doable. The worst part, though, is that I don't use a credit card. I have one, to build a credit rating, but I only use it to buy gas, so that there's no profile of my real purchasing habits. This is inconvenient, to say the least. I have to go to the airport to buy plane tickets. I pay cash for everything. I can't buy _anything_ online. To put it bluntly, this sucks. So, I set out on a quest to find an anonymous, prepaid credit/debit card - in essence, [digital cash](http://www.cob.sfasu.edu/rgriffith/virtualcash.htm) that I can swipe at Amazon as well as the checkout counter. If you're in a hurry, here's the executive summary: I use [Simon gift cards](https://www.simon.com/giftcard/). I buy them in person at a Simon mall, and overall, I'm pretty happy with them. They may not be perfect, but they're close. ### Candidates There are _lots_ of prepaid credit cards out there. [cardreport.com](http://www.cardreport.com/dirs/prepaid.html) is a good place to start. Also, there's a [Google Answers question](http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=277200) that provides a fairly comprehensive list of issuers. However, only a few come close to my requirements. Here's the short list. * [Green Dot](http://greendotonline.com/) * [WebSecret](http://websecretcard.com/) _(a Green Dot brand, discontinued)_ * [PrivaCash](https://secure.privacash.com/) _(affilated with Green Dot)_ * [Morgan Beaumont](http://www.morganbeaumont.com/) * [ecount](http://ecount.com/defaultecount.asp) * [Wired Plastic](http://www.wiredplastic.com/) * [Vaya](http://corp.ecount.com/prod/rf.html) * [Elite Plus Visa](http://www.elitepluscard.com/) * [PayPal](http://paypal.com/) * [Bank of America Gift Card](http://bankofamerica.com/giftcard/) _(discontinued)_ * Mall gift cards: [Simon](https://www.simon.com/giftcard/), [Westfield](http://westfield.com/uscentres/giftcards/), etc. * [Swiss Bankers Travel Cash](https://www.travelcash.ch/) * [International Money Transfer Card](http://www.imtcard.com/) ### Personal information The card's issuer shouldn't ask for much personal information. If they do, they shouldn't actually use or verify it. Social Security number, driver's license, passport, birthdate, and phone number are all things I'm not willing to give up. Ideally, I don't even want the cardholder's name to be mine. I am willing to give some personal information, though, such as address and email. I'm also willing to lie about the rest. Unfortunately, the federal government recently passed a law that requires all credit card issuers to collect SSNs. This was post-9/11, so I assume the motivation was tracking terrorists' finances. Some go even further; [Morgan Beaumont](http://www.morganbeaumont.com/)'s [application form](http://www.morganbeaumont.com/support_apply.cfm), for example, asks for a copy of your passport or drivers license! No thanks. Pretty much all issuers have complied, but fortunately, the law only requires that the issuer _collect_ SSNs. Most don't actually do anything with them. Whenever a prepaid card issuer requires me to provide an SSN, I just make one up. Not one of them has complained yet! _Update_: Other post-9/11 federal laws, such as the PATRIOT Act, are also rearing their ugly heads. Interpretation is still up in the air, but most financial institutions are erring on the side of collecting more rather than less, and verifying what they collect. For example, Green Dot recently started running credit checks against the SSN and birthdate you give them. No more fake info! Here's an example disclaimer: > The USA PATRIOT Act is a Federal law that requires all financial institutions to obtain, verify, and record information that identifies each person who opens an account. You will be asked to provide your name, address, date of birth, and other information that will allow us to identify you. You may also be asked to provide documentation as proof of identification. Sigh... ### Purchase and Reload I'd like to be able to buy prepaid cards in person, with cash. It'd be nice if there were many convenient locations, but I don't mind going out of my way. [Green Dot](http://getmygreen.com/locator.aspx) and [Morgan Beaumont site](http://www.morganbeaumont.com/support_loadlocations.cfm) do this well; you can buy their cards at common chain stores like Long's Drugs, Rite-Aid, and 7-Eleven. Some cards, like Wired Plastic, can be bought at [Western Union SwiftPay](http://www.westernunion.com/info/osSwiftPay.asp?country=US). Other cards, like Elite Plus Visa, can be bought at most major banks. Yet other cards, like Vaya, can be paid for by mailing a check or money order. Finally, some banks sell prepaid cards outright, but they usually require you to have an existing account. Once you've acquired a prepaid card and start using it, it will eventually run out of funds. At that point, you can either buy a new card or add funds to your existing card, also known as recharging or reloading. Recharging is definitely preferable to buying a new card, since the new card would have a new number. If you used the card to pay any recurring bills, such as [Netflix](http://netflix.com/) or [Vonage](http://vonage.com/) ([which I love](/space/2004-12-24)), you'd have to switch each of those services to the new card number. Unfortunately, many prepaid cards aren't rechargeable at all. ### The dregs I'm willing to live with the inconvenience of switching card numbers. However, there's always a small amount of money remaining on the card that I can't use. It's not enough to buy whatever I'd normally buy, and I'm not inclined to buy a bunch of little things that I don't need just to squeeze out the rest of my money. It's my money, after all! Ideally, major e-commerce sites would let you use multiple credit cards to pay for a purchase, specifying the amount to charge to each card. Restaurants have done this forever, but I don't know of any sites that do. If you're in this predicament, consider donating to your favorite [non-profit](http://www.eff.org), [web site](http://penny-arcade.com/), or [other worthy cause](http://mytwofrontteeth.org/). You can specify the exact remainder on your card as the amount to donate. ### Credit Reporting The main target audience for prepaid cards is people with bad credit. So, a few issuers offer the "feature" of monthly reporting to credit agencies. This may be good if you need to build up good credit fast, but I don't, and I sure as hell don't want them voluntarily reporting anything to anyone. Watch out for this. ### Acceptability The card should work like a normal Mastercard, Visa, or Discover card, without exception. I should be able to use it anywhere those cards are accepted, especially online. Having said that, I'd only use the card to pay for things online, like [Netflix](http://netflix.com/) and [Vonage](http://vonage.com/). So, I only need the card number and CVV; I don't really need an actual physical card. However, a physical card does help in some cases. When I buy airline tickets and hotel rooms with a prepaid card, it helps to have the physical card when I check in. Also, if your goal is privacy, there's still an open question. Some card issuers, mostly the ones that support retail purchase, don't ask for cardholder name or address. (This may have changed since 9/11.) If a merchant checks cardholder name and address when they authorize a purchase, could I use a name- or address-free card with that merchant? If so, how? ### Fees I expect that I'll pay extra for the privilege of using a prepaid card. I don't mind activation fees or yearly fees, but I'm not inclined to pay a monthly fee (e.g. Green Dot), and there's no way in hell I'm going to pay a fee per transaction. Also, the activation fees for some cards are prohibitively large. Elite Plus charges $150! No thanks. ### The Verdict I currently use [Simon gift cards](https://www.simon.com/giftcard/), and I'm happy with them. They're not reloadable, but they take up to $500, accept cash, and don't even ask for my name, much less my address or SSN. Plus, their [web interface](https://www.simon.com/giftcard/) is fast, friendly, and lets you connect _any_ name and address you want to each card, so you can use them with merchants that do [AVS checks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_Verification_System). Before Simon, I used [WebSecret](http://websecretcard.com/), which was great, but expensive, and ultimately discontinued. Before that, I used [Bank of America gift cards](http://bankofamerica.com/giftcard/), which were also discontinued. They required name, address, and SSN, which I fabricated, but still didn't like. Worse, they only allowed purchase with another credit or debit card. Simon cards are much better! Apart from prepaid credit and debit cards, there are [many](http://www.paypal.com/) [promising](http://ecount.com/defaultecount.asp) [digital](http://www.propay.com/) [cash](http://www.e-gold.com/) [providers](http://www.mondexusa.com/) that provide good security and anonymity. Some are even up and running, and you can use them to buy things, but none are widely accepted. Credit card networks like Mastercard, Visa, Discover, etc. are still the top dogs in terms of acceptability, but provide little true security and absolutely no anonymity. Hybrid systems like PayPal have made inroads, but only a little. Worse, they're slowly leaning towards the credit card model, losing most of their anonymity in the process. I fear I'll never have a payment instrument that's widely accepted and anonymous enough to satisfy me. I'll keep looking, though... See also: * [Quick Anon Plastic](http://tcftalk.com/clairefiles/index.php?PHPSESSID=1a0ae67cc49ef707f6fceec408840268&topic=8123.0) (at [Clairefiles](http://tcftalk.com/clairefiles/)) * [Currency Cards: Like Having Gold in your Wallet](http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/73/Currency_Cards.html) (at [EscapeArtist](http://www.escapeartist.com/)) * [faking out address and credit card forms](/space/faking out address and credit card forms) * [view evites anonymously](/space/view evites anonymously) * [kodak picturecenter hacks](/space/kodak picturecenter hacks) * [change firefox's saved passwords](/space/change firefox's saved passwords)