We’ve all seen and heard about the chips embedded in our credit and debit cards, but there is another highly secure measure we can take for our credit cards. They’re called virtual credit card numbers.

This technology is relatively new but it can save a lot of headache. Particularly in identity theft. As I’ve discussed in the past, when shopping online you’re not always safe. There are so many vulnerabilities when shopping online. Part of that threat is the potential for your identity getting stollen.

That’s where virtual credit card numbers come in. To save people that headache, credit card companies adopted this technology to make online shopping more secure.

So how do they work?

First of all, these numbers you can’t put into your wallet. Instead whenever you make a purchase online, this system will generate a series of random numbers and use that to verify your purchases. Even though the numbers are random, the number is still linked to your account.

What’s also nice about this feature is that you can also protect transactions further by placing expiration dates on your virtual credit card. You can also place spending caps. These two features ensure that if someone ever gets that data, they can’t really use it. And if by some miracle they do get to make purchases, they can’t make that many.

It all sounds great right? Indeed, but naturally there are still a few issues with it. First of all it can create some challenges in specific situations. Specifically if you ever need to return a purchase or dispute a charge it’ll be harder to prove since the number may not be active.

It also creates complications if you’re booking travel arrangements. Hotels require you to show your credit card so in those situations you’ll need to provide your actual card to book.

Outside of a few niche situations, this technology is solid and if you never have complaints about your purchases or rarely book hotels then this technology can make shopping online safer.