A balance between risk and convenience: Payment method for multiple monthly subscriptions

Privacy Questions
1

Hi, in evaluating my monthly subscriptions, I came to realize that I didn’t make conscious decisions on what payment method to use. Some are charged directly to my bank account (direct debit), some to my credit card issued by the same bank, and some to Paypal.

Note that I value convenience in these methods because I dont have to manually ensure there is enough balance in any of these methods (I connected my PayPal to my bank). For example, by using Virtual Cards, I will need to transfer certain balance regularly to the provider. Although in retrospect, if this is the only way to increase security, I don’t mind digging a bit how to make it work.

On the other hand, I would like to get rid of my Paypal after reading this and this and think about using my credit card instead. I trust my bank, however should my credit card details be stolen (thank God so far hasn’t happened), I will have to freeze it and check what monthly subscriptions I will have to change.

I’m based in the EU so privacy.com isn’t an option. Appreciate your recommendations!

2

If credit cards in the EU work anything like they do in the US, you won’t be held responsible for any fraudulent charge should you become subject to theft. Credit card fraud happens but it is not a major concern because your credit card company will take care of everything.

If security is your main concern and you want to avoid PayPal, then credit cards seem to be the way to go.

3

Thanks! Yeah good thing I didn’t have many subs paid via PayPal so I just switched those to my credit/debit account. It’s more that should there be any fraud, that would mean I need to change the payment method for all those subs while the cc is frozen.

But I suppose it’s either I compartmentalize now or later, or deal with ensuring the balance is sufficient for virtual card service like Revolut or Wise.