Not safe. To judge whether a virtual credit card is safe or not, look at its payment method. Virtual credit cards mainly use QR codes for payment.

QR code payment is a new generation wireless payment solution based on an account system. Under this payment plan, merchants can compile transaction information such as account numbers and product prices into a QR code, and print it on various newspapers, magazines, advertisements, books and other carriers.

Users can complete payment and settlement with the merchant's Alipay account by scanning the QR code through the mobile client. Finally, the merchant can deliver the goods and complete the transaction based on the user's delivery and contact information in the payment transaction information.

The impact of the suspension of QR code payment:

Relevant staff of the Payment and Settlement Department of the People's Bank of China said: The main impact is on offline business, specifically referring to offline QR code scanning. Offline collection and payment processes, while online QR codes are not affected. For WeChat: all businesses involving O2O, such as Didi Taxi, etc.; for Alipay: businesses such as Kuaidi Taxi.

Why are virtual credit cards unsafe?

The central bank pointed out in the letter that offline barcode (QR code) payment breaks through the traditional acceptance terminal business model, and its risk control level is directly related to the customer's information security and financial security. The security of offline barcode (QR code) instruction verification methods is still questioned. Virtual credit cards break through the existing credit card business model and do not fulfill their obligations in implementing customer identities. Virtual credit cards have problems with account security and payment security: First, it involves customer information protection.

The second involves your funds. How to prevent theft, this solution may not be solved yet for existing offline QR code payment.

Problems and risks of virtual credit cards:

Customer identification is no longer the traditional credit card model. First, go to the bank counter to sign the procedures one by one, and solve everything online, which also means no Safety. In addition, the emergence of virtual credit cards has opened up the entire process and touched the interests of certain institutions.

Can virtual credit cards still be used?

The suspension of two businesses by the central bank does not mean that you will not be allowed to do them in the future. After fully communicating with the central bank, we can still make improvements after improving the plan. The direction of the improvement plan is to solve the problems of customer identification and information protection, and the second is to solve the problems of customer payment security and fund security. In addition to Internet industries such as Alibaba and Tencent, traditional banks have also been developing "virtual credit card" services. Currently, many banks such as Bank of China, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, ICBC, and China Construction Bank have successively launched "virtual credit card" services. It is a virtual account derived from the UnionPay, VISA, and MasterCard BIN codes on the bank card, without a physical card.

According to relevant bank staff, the security of "virtual credit cards" is also guaranteed to a certain extent when used. Since there is no physical card, using a "virtual credit card" can also avoid being copied, and the security has been improved to a certain extent. Of course, this is just a rhetoric for banks to launch a “virtual credit card” business, and whether it is safe or guaranteed remains to be further verified. Therefore, we would like to remind our friends to “think twice before you act” when choosing a “virtual credit card”.