Questions about virtual cards

ReVault is a virtual card platform with programmable spending controls, launching in Canada. You create a separate card number for each merchant you pay, then set rules on that card in plain language — a spending cap, a category lock, a time window. Your real card number never reaches a checkout.

A virtual card is a real, working card number that is generated digitally and linked to your funding account. It has its own number, expiry date, and security code, and it is accepted anywhere that card network is accepted online. It exists only as data — there is nothing to carry.

Your real card is one number shared with every merchant you have ever paid. A virtual card is one number given to one merchant. If that merchant is breached, the exposed number works nowhere else, and you close it without reissuing the card in your wallet.

Single-Use closes itself after one transaction. Merchant-Locked binds to the first merchant that charges it and refuses every other. Category-Locked works only within one merchant category, like groceries or transit. Everywhere is a general-purpose card that still carries whatever spending rules you set on it.

No. ReVault runs in the browser, so you can create a card and set rules from any device. A mobile app and a browser extension are planned — the extension is what fills card details at checkout and watches for dormant subscriptions in the background.

Yes, and they are safer than using your real card number. A virtual card carries the same network fraud protection as a physical card, and it limits the damage of a breach: a stolen merchant-locked number cannot be used anywhere else, and closing it does not disturb your other payments.

The number they were holding is a card that only works at that merchant, so a thief cannot spend it elsewhere. You close that one card and create a replacement in seconds. Every other card you hold, and the real card in your wallet, is untouched.

The merchant sees the virtual card number, not your funding card number. ReVault verifies your identity as required by Canadian financial regulation, but that information stays with ReVault and its regulated partners. It is not passed along to the stores you shop at.

ReVault stores personal data in Canada and is built to comply with PIPEDA and Québec's Law 25. Card numbers are never held in plain form in browser code. The current privacy policy at revault.ca/legal/privacy sets out exactly what is collected and how long it is kept.

No. Privacy.com requires a US bank account and a US residential address, so Canadians cannot open one. There is no direct Privacy.com equivalent operating in Canada today. ReVault is being built to fill exactly that gap for Canadian users, in English and French.

Canadians currently choose between bank-issued virtual cards, which are usually a single fixed number with no per-card rules, and prepaid apps like KOHO, which give you one virtual card per account. ReVault is the closest match to the Privacy.com model: unlimited distinct card numbers with per-card rules.

Some do, in a limited form. RBC offers a virtual Visa Debit, and several issuers put a digital card number in their app. In most cases it is one number tied to your account, reissued rarely, with no ability to lock it to a merchant, cap it, or close it individually.

Yes. Every page of the site and every part of the product is available in French and English, including the rules you write in plain language. ReVault is built in Montréal, and Québec's language and privacy requirements were design constraints from the first line of code.

There is a free tier, and paid tiers at $7.99, $15.99, and $34.99 CAD per month, with an annual option. Higher tiers raise the number of cards you can hold and unlock card types like Everywhere. Full details are at revault.ca/pricing.

Every card transaction generates interchange — a small fee the merchant's bank pays the card issuer. ReVault earns that on all spending, including on free accounts. That is why the free tier is genuinely free rather than a trial, and why we do not sell transaction data.

No. ReVault cards draw on money you have already funded rather than extending credit, so there is no credit application and no hard inquiry. Opening an account does not appear on your credit file and does not change your score.

You describe the rule the way you would say it out loud — "cap this at $40 a month" or "only groceries, only on weekends." ReVault interprets it, shows you the exact rule it plans to apply, and waits for you to confirm before anything takes effect.

Yes. Close or pause the card a subscription is attached to and the next charge is declined at the network, before it reaches your account. ReVault also flags recurring charges on cards you have not otherwise used, which is how forgotten subscriptions surface.

The refund still reaches you. A closed ReVault card declines new charges but continues to accept credits from the original merchant, and the money returns to your funding balance. You do not need to reopen the card to be refunded.

ReVault is pre-launch. The waitlist at revault.ca is open now, and early access goes out to waitlist members in order before general availability. Joining costs nothing and is the only way to get an invitation at launch.