Secure your online and distance purchases with Mastercard virtual cards

By the Anytime team

April 12, 2021 - 7 mins reading

Anytime presents the virtual bank card, designed to simplify your Internet payments. It's the solution for paying your expenses remotely and online.

What is the Mastercard virtual card?

A Mastercard® virtual card works in the same way as a classic plastic Mastercard®. This virtual card allows you to pay online or remotely.

As its name suggests, the virtual card, also known as e-carte bleue or Virtualis, e-CB, Payweb card... is a dematerialized bank card. It allows you to make one-off or recurring payments, depending on how you set it up.

Technically, it's possible to use a virtual card for any online or remote payment, on French and foreign sites. So you can use it to pay for online purchases, train and plane tickets, accommodation, etc.

There are 2 types of virtual cards:

The virtual card for recurring use. A capped card that lets you manage your subscriptions or recurring transactions (Amazon, Nespresso, Fnac, Office dépôt).
The single-use virtual card. Card valid only for one transaction and a limited amount.

How do I get a virtual card?

Anytime offers different ways of editing virtual cards:

Open an Anytime account and use your customer area to generate virtual cards.
If you need to issue and manage thousands of virtual Mastercards, we provide you with a dedicated management interface called the VCN UI (Virtual Card Number) Portal.

To edit a virtual card, first select the amount available (making sure it has been funded in your pro bank account), then the validity period. One click and the card is issued.

Anytime provides:

virtual card number
its validity date
the 3-digit security code usually displayed on the back of the card

This information is available in your Anytime Customer Area, or can be communicated by email or SMS to your colleagues.

When you make an online payment, all you have to do is fill in the information requested.

From your Customer Area, you can track the movements made on the virtual card. Anytime also provides you with an API enabling you to automatically generate single-use or recurring-use virtual cards and retrieve transaction records.

What currencies can virtual cards handle?

You can pay in any currency with a Mastercard virtual card. Some banks offer to issue virtual cards in a particular currency, so that you can save on exchange charges. Issuing cards in a particular currency is only worthwhile if you have a bank account in that currency. Anytime offers you virtual cards in EURO.

How do I block or cancel a virtual card?

From your Anytime Customer Area, you can temporarily block or cancel a virtual credit card at any time.

The 5 advantages of using a virtual card to manage your online purchases

1. Save time

As an Anytime customer, you have access to an unlimited number of Mastercard virtual cards. So, instead of requesting a plastic card, which will be dispatched within 2 to 4 working days to your head office, you can instantly issue a virtual card, for single or multiple use, for the employee who needs it.

Administrative procedures are considerably simplified. It's the perfect solution for one-off expenses, and some anticipated recurring expenses (Nespresso, Office dépôt, etc.).

Your accounting team's work is also simplified, because you don't have to check your employees' expenses every month, and set up reimbursements for expenses advanced by each of them.

2. Real comfort for your employees

Thanks to the Mastercard virtual card, your employees don't have to advance money from their personal funds, and risk putting a strain on their cash flow by paying expenses that can sometimes be substantial when it comes to business trips including transport and accommodation.

For each transaction, your employees are invited to attach the supporting document, which they can take a photo of directly on the application, or send by email. In France, nearly 30% of employees are not reimbursed for their business expenses, because they admit to having lost their original receipts.

With Anytime, your employees can do this instantly, and don't have to waste precious time searching for receipts at the end of each month. In fact, according to a study carried out by Ruigrok NetPanel, 35% of employees surveyed felt that advancing expenses and having to undergo the voucher reimbursement process every month impacted their motivation.

You save your employees time and motivation by relieving them of the burden of expense reimbursement.

By setting an appropriate ceiling for each employee, they can manage their expenses independently. You can raise or lower this ceiling at any time.

3. Increased safety

A definite advantage of the Virtual Mastercard is its security. Even though many online merchants are now equipped with 3D Secure systems (an online payment security system introduced in France in 2008), there's always a risk in communicating your credit card details online.

With the virtual credit card, the code can be single-use. So even if a hacker gets his hands on your codes, he won't be able to do anything with them. Virtual card security is an excellent way to combat fraud.

4. Control your employees' expenses

The more a company grows, the more expense accounts can accumulate: business travel, accommodation costs, meal or teleworking expenses, etc. In 2017, French employees spent an average of €2,322 on expense accounts.

By opting for the virtual card solution for your employees' expense reports, you can centralize expenses and control them in real time.

From your Customer Area, you can group expenses by card, by employee or by department, and you have access to a listing of all transactions.

By allocating capped budgets to your employees, you can control the overall expense item, and rationalize certain expenses. By tracking expenses in real time, you can react quickly in the event of abuse or unforeseen circumstances.

By opening an Anytime account in just a few minutes, you'll benefit from a simple way to isolate all your expense claims in a dedicated account, and make life easier for your employees, your accounting team, and therefore the smooth running of your business.