Google Chrome Will Let You Create Virtual Credit Cards for Online Purchases

Google Chrome Will Let You Create Virtual Credit Cards

Google will soon offer Chrome users the ability to use a virtual credit card number when making payments online. This is a feature offered from some credit card issuers already, and it lets you hide your credit or debit card number while making purchases on the web. Google says the feature will help make it easy to securely buy things on sites that don’t support options like Google or Apple Pay. These virtual cards will roll out in the U.S. later this summer.

Google is working with credit card networks (Visa, Mastercard, and American Express) directly on this capability, 9to5google.com reports. So the implementation will differ based on the card. You’ll get an individual virtual card on every site if you’re a Capital One member for example, but Visa and Amex will have one card for all sites but a different CVV is used every time.

The new feature will be available on Chrome on desktop and Android first, with iOS support rolling out later. Capital One is the launch partner for this feature, so those cards with be the first ones available. Google will later add support for Visa, American Express, and Mastercards as well.

You can manage all your physical and virtual cards at pay.google.com. Here you will be able to see your current cards, add new ones, access created virtual card numbers, and see recent virtual card transactions.