A virtual payment card is a conventional credit card, only digital. Think of your normal credit card without its physical form and having only a 16-digit account number. A virtual payment card works much like a physical credit card; you can purchase things online with it. However, they are different, because virtual cards don’t have the same security limitations as physical ones.
A virtual payment card protects your real account number by generating a unique card number for every online transaction you make. Virtual cards can be temporary–useful for transactions on unsafe websites. For instance, your account would not be compromised if the business you patronized encountered security issues. You can use a virtual payment card for online purchases, some transactions over the phone, and at physical stores that accept virtual cards.
A virtual payment card is different from a digital wallet, although they have similar operations. For example, while you can use virtual cards for all online transactions that accept credit cards, digital wallets aren’t accepted everywhere.