My credit card number - why not have a numberless card? (1 Viewer)

[⚡DEADHEAD⚡]

I've been a victim of credit card fraud a few times. That and the anonymity of Bitcoin got me thinking. Why does my credit card have to have a number on it? Once upon a time, that number was the key piece of a transaction. But that's not the case anymore. The magnetic strip or chip is the key piece and the number is a backup in case of a failure in reading the strip or chip.

I wouldn't mind having two cards. One with the number to be used as a backup in case my numberless card doesn't work, or as a reference for Internet shopping. But in regular shopping when I need to hand my card over, especially when it's out of line-of-sight, like at a restaurant, a numberless card might be a good idea.

Haven't thought this through so I'm sure somebody will point out some key flaw here.

 

[Sarnoff]

What does having a numberless card accomplish? I mean, like you said, all the info is on the stripe. When someone "steals" your credit card number, it's not like you hand it over to a waiter, and he goes in back and writes down the numbers on the front and back before returning it to you. He will actually swipe it into a "skimmer" and get all your info that way, including security info not on the card itself. Stealing a card by writing down the number is, I think, less common than skimming.

 

[HughHoney]

What do I punch into the internet when I'm ordering rubber apparatus' shaped like Tera Patrick's ######?

 

[⚡DEADHEAD⚡]

What does having a numberless card accomplish? I mean, like you said, all the info is on the stripe. When someone "steals" your credit card number, it's not like you hand it over to a waiter, and he goes in back and writes down the numbers on the front and back before returning it to you. He will actually swipe it into a "skimmer" and get all your info that way, including security info not on the card itself. Stealing a card by writing down the number is, I think, less common than skimming.

I think you're probably right. I get a feeling the vast, vast majority of cc theft involves capturing the data, not necessarily stealing the number off the card at a restaurant.

My cc has a chip and more vendors are using the chip feature because it's supposed to be more secure. Here's hoping so. It's the standard in Europe.

 

[kutta]

We just need to go to thumbprints.