Credit Cards

How to get a Citi Virtual Credit Card Number

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How to get a Citi Virtual Credit Card Number

Virtual credit card numbers are random credit numbers you can use online that are associated with a real credit card.  So this means, instead of using your real Citi Prestige, you can create a Citi Virtual Credit Card Number that is linked to that card, but doesn’t reveal the real card number. It’s a great way to protect your real credit card number and is specific to one online merchant. Interested? This is how do you get a Citi Virtual Credit Card Number?

Who can get Virtual Account Numbers?

Citi Virtual Credit Card Number

Why would you want one?Citi Virtual Credit Card Number

How can you get one?

Citi Virtual Credit Card Number

Then you can generate numbers one of two ways, once you register the card

I use a Mac so the downloaded program didn’t work, but the web-based auto generator is super easy. You’ll want to make sure you allow Flash to be run.

a screenshot of a computer account

You’ll be asked to generate…

a screenshot of a computer

You’ll be prompted to select an account

Citi Virtual Credit Card Number

And Voila…Your Citi Virtual Credit Card Account Number

You now have a virtual account number that you can use that will bill your existing card and help protect yourself.
Citi Virtual Credit Card Number

 

 

 

 

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 3x on dining
    •  including eligible delivery services for takeout
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel Portal
  • 2x on all other travel
  • $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Chase Travel
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 10% Anniversary Bonus
    • Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
  • Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Primary rental car coverage is my favorite

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

13 Comments

  • Dave deWolfe July 4, 2020

    My Citibank virtual account numbers feature disappeared from my credit card about a year ago (July 2019) without any notification. It apparently has something to do with Adobe Flash maintenance being discontinued. The virtual account numbers featured specifying an expiration date and dollar limits. The latter feature was great in that you could specify the amount of the online purchase, which precluded vendors from charging more than they were supposed to (guess what? some of them do!). For some reason Citibank does not provide a list of which of their cards now offer the virtual account feature. If anyone finds such a list, please let me know.
    I am now using Capital One virtual account numbers which does not allow the user to specify dollar limits or expiration dates. While it is actually easier to use than Citibank, not being able to specify dollar limits is a serious disadvantage, Your entire line of credit is at risk.

  • […] We wrote an entire article on Virtual numbers here that you can read. […]

  • […] We wrote an entire article on Virtual numbers here that you can read. […]

  • […] We wrote an entire article on Virtual numbers here that you can read. […]

  • […] We wrote an entire article on Virtual numbers here that you can read. […]

  • John May 6, 2018

    Great Article! Do you know how many possible cards we can make at a time? Example: once I generate one card, can I only use that one virtual card, and can I make 3 or 6 more virtual cards? thank you for your hep

    • Miles May 6, 2018

      John – thanks! I don’t know…lemme know if you try and I’ll update the article

  • EdW April 26, 2018

    Citi’s online virtual account number tool uses Adobe Flash. That’s a show-stopping fail for me – Flash is insecure and buggy and I refuse to run it.

  • AO May 22, 2017

    My ability to access VAN seems to have disappeared, presumably discontinued for my card, with no notice. Was handy for not exposing full credit to certain vendors that might improperly bill or have complaints against them for continuing to bill upon service cancellation.

    One of my numbers wouldn’t work, and that’s the only way I found out. So maybe don’t rely too heavily on this sort of thing, especially for auto-billing.

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