What is a virtual card and how does it work in Canada?
A virtual card is a real, working card number generated digitally and linked to your funding account. It has its own number, expiry date, and security code, and is accepted anywhere online that the card network is accepted. Because it is separate from your physical card, you can close it without touching the card in your wallet.
Last updated — July 2026 · 5 min read
How a virtual card actually works
When you create a virtual card, the issuer generates a new card number on the same network as a physical card — Visa or Mastercard — and links it to a funding source you have already set up. To the merchant it is indistinguishable from any other card. It authorises, settles, refunds, and disputes the same way.
The difference is on your side. The physical card in your wallet is one number that every merchant you have ever paid still holds. A virtual card is a number you can create for a single purpose and destroy when that purpose ends, without any of your other payments noticing.
What you can do with one that you cannot do with a real card
- Give a different number to every merchant, so a breach at one of them exposes a number that works nowhere else.
- Close a single card without reissuing the card in your wallet and re-entering it at a dozen other places.
- Cap what a specific merchant can charge, so a subscription that quietly triples in price gets declined instead of paid.
- Create a card for a free trial that dies after the first transaction, so the trial cannot convert without your say-so.
Who offers virtual cards in Canada?
Canadian options fall into three groups. Some banks issue a digital card number in their app — RBC offers a virtual Visa Debit for chequing customers, for example. Prepaid and neobank apps like KOHO and Wealthsimple issue a virtual card alongside your physical one. Both approaches give you one number per account.
The third group is dedicated virtual card platforms, where the whole point is many distinct numbers with rules attached. Privacy.com is the best-known example, but it requires a US bank account and US address, so Canadians cannot use it. ReVault is being built to fill that gap in Canada.
When should you use a virtual card instead of your real one?
- Any subscription. This is the highest-value case: a card you can close is a subscription you can always cancel, regardless of how hostile the cancellation flow is.
- Free trials. A single-use card lets the trial start and prevents it from converting silently.
- Stores you are buying from once. A merchant-locked card means a one-time purchase does not leave your permanent card number sitting in someone's database forever.
- Anything you are unsure about. If a checkout page makes you hesitate, a card that only works there and only for one charge removes the reason to hesitate.
What a virtual card does not do
It does not make you anonymous. The issuer still knows who you are, and Canadian financial regulation requires identity verification. What changes is what the merchant learns, not what your provider knows.
It does not protect against a merchant you deliberately paid taking your money and not delivering. That is a dispute, and it works the same on a virtual card as on a physical one.
It does not help with in-person payments in most cases. Virtual cards are an online and in-app instrument, though many can be added to a mobile wallet for tap payments.
Related questions
Is a virtual card the same as a digital wallet card?
No. A digital wallet like Apple Pay tokenises your existing card for a specific device — it is still your one card underneath. A virtual card is a genuinely separate card number with its own life cycle that you can create, cap, and close independently.
Can I use a virtual card in a physical store?
Usually only by adding it to a mobile wallet and tapping your phone. Virtual cards are designed for online and in-app checkouts. If a merchant needs to swipe or insert a card, you need the physical one.
Do virtual cards expire?
Yes, they carry an expiry date like any card. Beyond that, single-use cards close themselves after one transaction, and you can close any virtual card manually at any time. A closed card declines new charges but still accepts refunds from the original merchant.
Does a virtual card cost money in Canada?
Often not. Bank-issued virtual cards are typically included with the account, and dedicated platforms including ReVault offer a free tier. Paid tiers exist and buy you more cards and more control, not the basic ability to create one.
Every dollar gets a mission
ReVault is pre-launch in Canada. The waitlist is free and invitations go out in order.
Join the waitlist