How to secure internet payments with Fortuneo virtual cards?

Although very careful, since I have been aware of the subject for a very long time in the context of my work, I had the unpleasant experience of being subjected to two credit card frauds a few years ago. To remedy this, I therefore looked for a reliable and secure solution to secure internet payments: for a little over 4 years I have been using online banking in this way. Fortuneo, which has some really cool features on it.

Credit card fraud

My first fraud took place via Microsoft services: someone bought a license for € 275 using my credit card. After contacting Microsoft about this, it turned out that my card number was used on 5 different accounts in their database! Problem: I had never paid anything by card at Microsoft, since my Microsoft 360 subscription is paid via Paypal! After explanations, Microsoft agreed to reimburse me the sum, and the card number was deleted from all the offending accounts.

The second fraud was made on the DJI site: this time a person had two drones delivered to the US, for an amount of more than $ 2000! Fortunately, having a contact at DJI thanks to the site, the order was canceled the next day.

In both cases the story ended well, but it is always a very unpleasant experience, between cold sweats, procedures, sometimes filing a complaint with the gendarmerie, etc.

However, I take a lot of precautions when I pay on the internet. Secure site (with green padlock in the address bar), well-known site, double authentication, no card number registered on merchant sites, etc. But in reality, even without having ever shown his card, it is possible to be defrauded: the realization of a small program to generate valid card numbers is relatively easy to carry out. It is enough that the program generates your card number by chance, and it is bad luck for you: / These frauds have been exploding for a year with the current crisis, and have affected more than a million households. last year. Suffice to say that the risk is very present.

Secure your internet payments

During my search for more security, I came across online banking Fortuneo. Fortuneo is a subsidiary of Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, a well-known bank, and therefore not yet another virtual bank out of the hat.

It offers the same advantages as many online banks today, as I had already presented to you with Soon a few years ago (which has since become Axa Bank): creation of a free account in a few minutes online, no fees, free bank card, mobile application for monitoring accounts, etc. Different cards are available: classic Mastercard, Gold, Black, American Express, immediate or deferred debit, etc. Personally, I had opted for the Mastercard Gold with deferred debit, which covers me in many situations (including travel abroad), and which allows me to have my professional expense reports reimbursed even before the expenses are debited. Very convenient ! In addition to the current bank account, it is possible to take out savings accounts, stock exchange accounts, life insurance, mortgage loans, etc. In short, comprehensive services worthy of a real bank.

I will not go into the details of creating an account, it is done in a few minutes online, very easily. It will of course be necessary to provide some supporting documents, classic for this kind of operation. The type of payment card will simply be subject to a minimum income (an American Express Platinum will ask you, for example, to justify an income of at least € 65,000. Rest assured, the classic and Gold master cards require respective income of 1200 and 1800 €. Note that this is only proof, there is no obligation to pay your salary into this Fortuneo account, especially if it is a secondary account for you).

Account management is done via the mobile application or the web interface. Here again, very classic: monitoring of expenses and income, free transfers from one account to another, etc.

As it is a modern bank, Fortuneo also offers payment by Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay, the latter two allowing contactless payment thanks to its sports watch.

What interests us more particularly here is the management of the payment card, in order to secure internet payments. The application indeed offers several options:

• Internet protection: activated, this protection prohibits any payment on the internet. Loud and clear. If a payment is made on the internet with this card, it will be immediately refused. To pay on the internet, you will then have to use a virtual card number, which we will see later. Only payments from SNCF and hotels will be accepted: these services generally require presenting the payment card once there, to find the reservation or withdraw tickets, which is obviously not possible with a card. Virtual. With this option, we already protect ourselves from the type of fraud I have had in the past.
• Contactless payment: the possibility of contactless payment can be activated or deactivated with a click. Even if this type of payment is practical, in terms of security many people do not want it, many having been debited from their card remotely: /
• Use abroad: an interesting additional protection, which prohibits any use of his card outside France, which further limits the risks. You can of course authorize it with a simple click, which I do to go to the United States or Germany for the various exhibitions I visit. Once activated, Fortuneo also offers us to receive a notification for any expense made abroad: practical for example in restaurants in the US where the waitress goes to the counter with your card to cash it, no code being necessary, the magnetic tape being still widely used there. Many have been debited for unauthorized amounts in this manner. Here a notification is immediately issued with the amount, so no more bad surprises. Note in passing that Fortuneo has removed fees abroad: normally when you pay or withdraw money abroad, you are charged a fixed commission and a percentage of the paid assembly. With Fortuneo, transactions abroad cost you nothing, which is not negligible!

With these protections activated, it therefore becomes very difficult to have your card cheated. However, if like me you do a lot of shopping on the internet, this may seem too restrictive to you? Rest assured, payments on the internet are still perfectly usable, but via virtual credit cards. The principle is simple: in the application, you ask to make a secure payment: you then indicate the amount of the transaction, and the validity period of the card. The application will generate a payment card number, with validity date and cryptogram, just like a real classic card:

The only difference is that you can indicate a very short validity date (one month), and that it will not be possible to debit this card more than the amount you have indicated (here 45 € for example) , which will limit any overflow. If a card number is therefore compromised on a poorly secured service, it will therefore only concern this service, and for a limited amount. Perfect for securing your internet payments!

Personally I use this payment method for absolutely everything:

• for a one-off purchase, I create a new card with the necessary amount and the duration that I consider to be minimum (when sometimes the card is debited on dispatch and that this takes place two months after the order, it is necessary to plan a date longer validity)
• A great user of Amazon, and its ease of purchase, I am on the other hand against the fact that the company registers my payment card every time! It is certainly practical, but after two frauds, I do not leave my number anywhere. I therefore credit my Amazon account regularly. For this, I create a virtual card of 100 € for example, and I credit my Amazon account with this card. I then remove the card from my Amazon account, since it will no longer be valid anyway. From there I have € 100 credited to my Amazon account, which I can use anytime via the one-click purchase if I want. It is certainly money that “sleeps” at Amazon, but rarely for very long: p In addition, very often, Amazon offers a bonus of € 8 when you top up your account by € 100 😉
• for subscriptions, this also works. For example for Netflix, I created a virtual card of 168 €, valid for 12 months. Each month, Netflix debits its € 13.99 on it. I know this card is only used by Netflix, and if there was ever a fraud with the streaming service, at most I would be impacted by 160 €. Impossible to take more over it!

All these cards created are visible in the application, with creation date, validity date, name of the store that used it, and the amount remaining available above (we see for example below that there is 138 € left for my Synology C2 subscription).

Clicking on it allows you to delete a virtual card at any time. So we have full control over it.

I also used this for a dishonest company from which I bought a shower cubicle on the internet last year when we were renovating our bathroom (at 1000 € anyway…). I had opted for a payment in 4 installments, via a virtual card. Deliverable within 48 hours, despite my numerous reminders, no sign of life after half a month: I deleted my virtual card, the company was unable to withdraw the remaining amounts. Suffice to say that very strangely, this one finally appeared to deliver me …

Conclusion

This virtual credit card system, associated with the protections authorized by Fortuneo, allows you to really secure your internet payments, and to sleep better on your two ears 🙂 Fortuneo is not the only bank to offer this type of virtual card, but the banks offering the possibility are quite few. Fortuneo has the advantage of offering it, with modern features, no running costs, and unquestionable reliability. If you are looking to secure your account, this is therefore an option to know 🙂

Sponsorship

Like many online banks, Fortuneo offers referral offers. For you, it will be 130 € offered when opening your account until April 29, which is always good to take. For me, it varies between 80 and 110 €, depending on the offers of the moment. If you are interested in the offer, do not hesitate to use my sponsor code 12792958, you will thus have the welcome bonus, and you will thereby help the blog with a little income to buy new products to Review 😉

Free and secure Fortunéo account

Benefit from a 130 € welcome bonus using the referral code!

How to secure your internet payments using Fortuneo virtual cards?