Getsby allows you to purchase prepaid non-reloadable debit cards (5 per day, 50 per month) with a fee of € 2.99 + 3%. They are available in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland.
Downside: You can’t pay them with Monero, so effectively you’re just giving Getsby your data rather than the merchant. From the FAQ: “You can only top-up your card using a debit- or credit card and via bank transfers.”
Well, disposable virtual debit cards service by revolut.com is free and I don’t see how Getsby service could offer more. Sure they work differently but when it comes to disposable virtual debit cards they look the same to me.
This offers sort of a layer but the cards are tight to your identity as required by regulations. IMHO there is no point in using this.
Your payments are already secured by your bank/mastercard/visa why add some expensive middle man?
Not sure why you classify this as masking @jonah?
I would have more faith in the banks here than some transaction companies.
This is also a misconception. Your data will still go to the merchant.
They are the same: no extra privacy, no real extra security.
Virtual cards shift the responsibly of security to user instead of bank / card companies that insure your purchase. They really do not give you any benefit imo.
With the exception being privacy.com which actually hides your name from transactions but such thing would be illegal in the EU.
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Per https://www.privacyguides.org/en/financial-services/:
There are a number of services which provide “virtual debit cards” which you can use with online merchants without revealing your actual banking or billing information in most cases.
These services are primarily useful for protecting you from merchant data breaches, less sophisticated tracking or purchase correlation by marketing agencies, and online data theft; and not for making a purchase completely anonymously.
But these do not exist in EU. Its just not possible. It will always have your details tight to it.
Plus you are protected by the bank under regulation for misuse of your account.
You’re right, it sounds like using a valid billing address is still a requirement with Getsby, so the only advantage to using it would be being able to hide your “real” card/bank numbers.
I think there are simply no good Privacy.com alternatives available outside the US. EU customers would probably be better off anonymously purchasing gift cards in person or online instead, oh well.