Companies with webcards that are student friendly?

AIUI, a webcard is a card that can only be used once with a pre-determined upper limit set by you. So it effectively is a new card per transaction. So if a merchant is less than sterling or your card details fall into disreputable hands somehow, you have little to worry about.

The bank my main account is with does not offer webcards. In fact I almost never put my Debit card in my purse as it would allow criminals direct access to my bank account.

What is "nka"? I'm getting apparently unrelated acronym definitions from online dictionaries.

Why on Earth are you doing that when in fact it isn't? Just because you use it for web-based purchases doesn't necessarily mean the details will be used fraudulently, and even if they are your money is safe.

In any case, if it *were* to be used fraudulently, chances are it would happen as soon as possible after the details had fallen into the wrong hands, so depending on what exactly you mean by "every so often", it might not be quick enough.

Consider also that the risk of card fraud from your new cards being intercepted in the post before they reach you may well be greater than that of card details going astray on line.

Try these guys

In fact, your card is more at risk from being used fraudulently if you use it in certain pubs, restaurants, and shops with unscrupulous staff, or from using cashpoints that have been tampered with. Online use is rapidly becoming extremely safe because banks impose extra checks, rules and regulations on merchant account holders who handle online transactions. In fact, many banks won't allow you to trade online with a normal merchant account. They have special internet merchant accounts which require all sorts of extra security measures to be provided and proved before a merchant number gets issued.

So do you order them in packs of 20 or a sheet of paper with umpteen numbers on which you cross out as you use them? Or is it a wee program you have to run on your machine which generates a new card number each time you run it?

Surely they must require a huge number-space, and need numbers longer than the standard 16 digits, wouldn't that play havoc with merchants' validation packages?

You have little to worry about anyway.

Do you carry cash instead? Do you consider that safer? Do you leave your card at home? What if you get burgled?

ITYF it's nothing more sophisticated than a mis-spelling of "bank".

Next question: What does "ITYF" mean? :-)

I agree, I'm far more worried about my card details being stolen by waitstaff in restaurants.

Thanks for the info.

That looks like the equivalent of a debit card with a pre-paid "upper limit".

I don't see how that would be better than a credit card as the consumer wouldn't be covered by the Consumer Credit Act and credit cards have upper limits anyway.

I wondered that too, but was afraid to ask in case it was some sort of TLA that I hadn't come across before.

I think it is generated for you. Doesn't make sense to get them in packs of 20, as the environmentalists would go ape and besides, you need some way of communicating your upper limit and expiration dates to banks.

I think the cards have a very near expiration date, so numbers can be recycled within the range of numbers different banks are allocated.

Loss of money is relative.

A bit of cash and one credit card with a spending limit of a few hundred £££. I like to run my finances tight and controlled.

I think you'll find I didn't need to look that one up ;-)

You have the same protection that you have with any other Mastercard. Plus, it works in exactly the same way as a pay-as-you-talk mobile phone. If you don't put credit onto it, you can't use it, and neither can a thief. End of story. So if your worried about getting fleeced, you just load it with small amounts at a time. Whatever amount you need to spend. They have 2 plans you can choose from. you can either pay a 5 charge every month, or else pay 1 on each transaction. It really depends on how frequently you're likely to use it.

It's possibly the student bit and/or age, rather than the income. I know people with less income than that who have successfully applied. Cahoot may possibly be wary of people that they think will max out the 100GBP free overdraft and then not use the account..

You may find that they will welcome you as a savings account holder - at

5% AER for a quid or more, it isn't a bad place to put a few quid, or just a quid come to that. Then, after a few months, try for a web card /current account again.

The Cahoot Webcard is a great idea. I wish other banks would do it.

I don't use my Cahoot current account very often though, what with it being 99GBP overdrawn and all...

sk8terg1rl posted

Debit cards are an entirely separate issue. Why do you not apply for a simple credit card from one of the main providers like Visa? What is the specific risk that you are worried about - theft?

Not really it isn't.

20% is 1 in 5.

Which means that 4 out of 5 have never had any card fraud perpetrated using their details. That is *ever*, not per year.

And most of them are not paranoid enough to keep getting their card replaced at frequent intervals.

While there is no doubt that there is a risk, and even 1 in 5 is quite a lot, the risk is not as high as many people think.

I regularly use my cards online, to buy stuff for myself and for other people too worried about fraud to do so. In one year I spent over 40,000 on a single card (unfortunately not all my own money :-) ), and in total I must have spent getting on for 150,000 online since I started. That is over huge numbers of small transactions, mostly under 20, and in all that time I have had one problem. Someone tried using my card to sign up for an ISP in Belgium. A quick chat with the bank and it was sorted, but that was on a card I regularly use in shops, out eating and drinking also, so I can`t even say for certain that the number was obtained online.

People are FAR too paranoid about their CC details being stolen online :-)

In article , sk8terg1rl writes

AFAIK the Webcard is unique to Cahoot.

I have one, or rather I have a Cahoot credit card with the Webcard facility.

The account is 100% web-based

When I applied over the website it turned me down immediately (in spite of the fact I'm perfectly creditworthy) so I realised they were running some sort of robot on the web site to do "credit scoring" based upon my answers to their questions.

So I went back and tried to reapply but it kicked me off. I assumed they had set some sort of cookie or were applying some other sort of time- limit.

So I applied again 3 months later putting in the same details apart from when it asked me if I wanted the "payment protection" when I answered "yes" instead of the "no" I gave the first time; and when it asked if I wanted to "transfer a balance" to the account, I answered "yes" instead of the previous "no".

It immediately gave me a provisional acceptance based upon further enquiries being ok and in due course I got the facility.

When I had the facility, I disabled the payment protection "insurance" because you have a time-window to change you mind and I never transferred a balance.

In article , Michael Hoffman writes

There are *far* worse things that can happen with your card details. See my other post.

In article , Swampy Bogtrotter writes

*YOU* are completely missing the point!

This thread is about a product from Cahoot called a Webcard

It is a virtual credit card -- you generate one on demand using a small software application supplied by Cahoot.

It is a once-only card, good for just one transaction, up to a limit you specify when generating the card. It has a 1 month validity time-window.

It is used for one transaction then it is useless.

Other than the initial transaction, and even that is capped, it offers absolute protection against remote abuse, online or not.

How does that work? Are you saying you are losing your purse often?

Do you not need a PIN number for the cards yu possess?

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