Google introduces virtual credit cards to Chrome

Google Chrome is now making your online shopping experience easier and smoother by allowing the use of virtual credit cards on your purchases. It should help you have a seamless online interaction with your favorite stores on the web every time, especially for those that don’t accept Google or Apple Pay. Apart from that, the new feature to Chrome’s autofill system will also keep your actual credit card numbers away from possible dangers that can be caused by a breach.

“This is a landmark step in bringing the security of virtual cards to as many consumers as possible,” said Google Vice President and General Manager of Payments Arnold Goldberg. “Shoppers using Chrome on desktop and Android can enjoy a fast checkout experience when shopping online while having the peace of mind knowing that their payment information is protected.”

The cards will work both on one-time purchases of products or services and subscriptions with recurring charges. Google Chrome will use its autofill capability by asking you to use your virtual number when you encounter a field for entering the 16-digits of your credit or debit card. If you agree, it will enter the details of your virtual credit cards when you are purchasing something from the web, and you can manage them and see all the transactions you’ve made through pay.google.com. Users just need to enroll their cards at pay.google.com, and once everything is set, the virtual credit card will join other saved payment methods in your Chrome’s Autofill drop-down. Meanwhile, Google promises that it won’t use the data of the virtual credit card owners to deliver targeted ads.

This summer, it is set to roll out in the US to Visa and Amex cards and all Capital One branded credit cards. Google says it will cover Mastercard later this year. The virtual numbers are usually the domain of banks, so expect that the implementation will differ depending on the partners. There will be an individual virtual card for each site for Capital One card users, while Amex and Visa will be using one card for all sites, albeit a different CVV will be used every time in the autofill.

It is one of Google’s biggest announcements at I/O 2022, and it will be available for Android and desktop versions of Chrome first. Google promises to make it available to iOS users later.