Why You Should Use Virtual Cards for Every Subscription
A virtual card is a one-time-use or per-merchant card number tied to your real card. For subscriptions, they're the single best defense against forgotten trials, price hikes and continuity fraud.
What a virtual card does
Generates a unique card number for a single merchant. You can pause, cancel or set spending limits per merchant — without touching your real card.
Free-trial use case
Sign up with a virtual card that auto-locks after 7 days. The trial works. The auto-conversion fails. No charge.
Subscription use case
One virtual card per subscription. To cancel: pause the virtual card. Merchant gets a declined transaction and cancellation usually follows automatically.
Where to get them
Most modern banks and neobanks offer virtual cards (Revolut, Wise, Privacy.com, Capital One, Apple Card and many others). Check your bank's app.
What virtual cards don't fix
They don't help with subscriptions you've already authorised on a real card. For those, run Subscription Shield first, cancel what you can, then move the keepers to virtual cards.
The bottom line
Pair Subscription Shield (to find what you're paying for) with virtual cards (to control future payments) and your subscription spend stops being a leak.