Virtual Accounts is the only reason I have used my Citibank MC over other credit cards for the last 8 to 10 years. Recently you did something that prevents being able to use a shortcut for access to the Flash interface for creating or managing virtual cards. Now, we now have to log into the normal web interface, navigate through four or five more clicks, then launch the Virtual Account Number interface, and then LOG IN AGAIN! THIS IS A RIDICULOUSLY CUMBERSOME procedure every time an online purchase is needed. I just opened a Bank of America Visa with the intent of using their Virtual Account capability for future needs instead of Citibank.
Well, all these ways of getting to the web based VAN are fine but doesn't change the fact they discontinued, without notice, VAN on my AA Exec card.
There is an interesting disclaimer on the site noting that not all Citi Cards have the VAN feature and directing you to look at the individual card feature descriptions to determine which cards have VAN. I don't see any cards TOS or features that now say anything at all about VAN. It almost looks like they are discontinuing the feature.
What is going on with Citi? Is the VAN creating problems or fraud? Merchant issues?
I have been trying for a week to geta VAN on the web site... When I get the phone call with the authorization code, it just says I have to call in. When I call in, I am transferred and/or put on hold for extended periods, then either disconnected, or connected to a person who doesn't have a clue. I do not have text. Why can't they just email me the code?
scripta said: akaCNC said: I don't see any cards TOS or features that now say anything at all about VAN.Perhaps you're not looking in the right place?
The only thing there about cards that have VANs is this: The Virtual Account Numbers benefit is not available for all Citi Cards. If you currently have a Citi card, you can view benefits for your specific card by logging in or registering for Benefit Builder. Or, you can view all Citi Cards and their features by visiting CitiCards.com
But go to the link and nothing about which cards have VANs. Just weird.
Space said: I did try with IE8 earlier, which accepts all cookies, and it didn't work, but I will see what I can do with Firefox...ThanksMade an interesting discovery -- it seems that Citi has different credit card management portals for different card holders (or card types). Upon logging into my Citi credit card account, my session gets redirected to www.accountonline.com and remains there for credit card management purposes (i.e. paying CC bill, looking up statements, etc.) It also keeps me there when launching the VAN app.
On the other hand, a friend of mine gets redirected to online.citibank.com (upon logging into Citi) for the majority of credit card management tasks (i.e. paying CC bill, statements, and so forth). HOWEVER, when proceeding to generate a VAN via the web-site's actual links and clicks, the following URL at online.citibank.com redirects the logged in session to www.accountonline.com:
In other words, the URL above seems to bind the logged in online.citibank.com session over to the www.accountonline.com site. Based on that, for those of you who get logged into online.citibank.com, I came up w/ the following 3 step process for launching the VAN app:
1) Login to your Citi account
2) Paste this URL (to redirect session from online.citibank.com to www.acccountonline.com): https://online.citibank.com/US/JSO/SSO/Cards.do?targetAOApp=van
3) Paste this URL to launch the VAN Flash app: https://www.accountonline.com/cards/svc/VanWebConfirm.do
If the steps above work, the Flash VAN app will pop open, at which point you'll need to login directly into that app.
This launches the flash VAN window to log into. Not as robust as the old single link bookmark, but is still easier than clicking 5 times to get to it through normal channels.
2) Paste this URL (to redirect session from online.citibank.com to www.acccountonline.com): https://online.citibank.com/US/JSO/SSO/Cards.do?targetAOApp=van
If the steps above work, the Flash VAN app will pop open, at which point you'll need to login directly into that app. This seemed to work for me, thanks!
Count yourselves lucky if your Citi CC still has VANs - Citi's AA Exec MC doesn't. It may be that the AA Exec card is the only Citi branded non-AMEX card that doesn't have VANs.
- Orbiscom the controlled payment number processor was purchased by MasterCard in 2009 (and fired good employees to save money???). May be we should start complaining to them http://www.mastercard.com/us/company/en/ if Orbiscom originally developed the app (I don't know if that's the case - just guessing)
- Orbiscom the controlled payment number processor was purchased by MasterCard in 2009 (and fired good employees to save money???). May be we should start complaining to them http://www.mastercard.com/us/company/en/ if Orbiscom originally developed the app (I don't know if that's the case - just guessing)Looks like there have been some advances in Orbiscom's technology which Citi hasn't incorporated (and at this point probably never will): http://www.mastercard.com/hk/personal/en/promotions/2011_collect...
And who is this "GlobalBank" w/ their "Internet Security Number" program listed in these images? Would love to find a replacement VAN provider that supports the stand-alone Orbiscom app the way Citi used to.
akaCNC said: I was just informed by a Citi CSR that the Virtual Credit Card feature previously available has been discontinued for AA Citi Exec Mastercards (the high AF and emv chipped) but not other Citi Cards. They said it was some technical problem that applied only to the AA Citi Exec. They offered to open another card which I suppose is one solution but a big PITA.
Interestingly, the Citi CSR was not aware of this initially and it came out after it was escalated to a supervisor who then checked further up.
This is consistent with the online message which was "This account does not have this service" after entering login credentials on the VCC popup. I had been going around for a few days with their internal messaging. They incorrectly thought I was trying to access a closed CC I had switched the account from last summer.
Anyone else have the AAWEMC to verify?Looks like there's a potential work-around (posted here) for generating VANs w/ the AA Citi Exec card, provided you have another Citi card that's eligible to launch the VAN app:
supergrandslam@flyertalk said: To clarify, I always select my other citi credit card first to launch the VAN web, then I change the card for generating VAN.
serayahhawkins said: Upset? Anger? What would you do if you really had a problem in life?Welcome to FatWallet serayahhawkins Should we expect this same level of participation from you in future posts?
vipercon said: Space said: There are too many stories of CC numbers being stolen from various web sites, so when that happens I don't want to have to worry, plus it prevents anyone from charging more than I authorized on the card.
So you waste all of the time and energy of generating virtual cards to use at trusted retailers for every purchase so in the event of the off chance your CC# is stolen online you will not have to waste 2 min. to call and dispute the charges and get a new CC issued?
Edit: When in reality your number is going to end up comprised when you go out to eat or the gas station.This is the exact opposite of the Agape World guys who bang Brazilian hookers with no condom.
TheDiggler said: akaCNC said: I was just informed by a Citi CSR that the Virtual Credit Card feature previously available has been discontinued for AA Citi Exec Mastercards (the high AF and emv chipped) but not other Citi Cards. They said it was some technical problem that applied only to the AA Citi Exec. They offered to open another card which I suppose is one solution but a big PITA.
Interestingly, the Citi CSR was not aware of this initially and it came out after it was escalated to a supervisor who then checked further up.
This is consistent with the online message which was "This account does not have this service" after entering login credentials on the VCC popup. I had been going around for a few days with their internal messaging. They incorrectly thought I was trying to access a closed CC I had switched the account from last summer.
Anyone else have the AAWEMC to verify?Looks like there's a potential work-around (posted here) for generating VANs w/ the AA Citi Exec card, provided you have another Citi card that's eligible to launch the VAN app:
supergrandslam@flyertalk said: To clarify, I always select my other citi credit card first to launch the VAN web, then I change the card for generating VAN.
Thanks for that info. I don't have another Citi card. So far I've only wanted one each from the major banks but this might be a good reason to add another.
Seems to me like some auditor looked at it and called a risk, so the management panicked and reacted by changing everything to close the risk with ZERO thought about usability aka end user experience(typical banking cr@p). The simplest thing to do is to have a dedicated link and may be add a text code(SMS), instead we have to go thru hundreds of clicks and SMS messages every time. What a shame.
Discover has the only other VAN service that I could find,* but you can't limit the amount that number will pay. Being able to limit the amount is the best feature of Citi's VAN. It's especially useful for a subscription site that wants to automatically renew if you don't want it to renew. It also protects against unauthorized additional charges. As with everyone else I miss the convenience of the desktop version and the drag and drop, not to mention the extra clicks and how much longer it takes to get to the end. Now I have to copy and paste. Even though it includes the spaces, every site I have used it on takes out the spaces at the next step. If ever one doesn't all I have to do is delete three spaces after pasting--easier than typing in the number.
To address the people who think it is insane to use a new number for every purchase: why are you even in this discussion? This is for people who do believe in VAN's. Some things are worth being paranoid over and I don't trust any site to be as careful with my money as I am.
* According to Wikipedia, the other controlled payment number services besides Citi and Discover are Bank of America and NetSpend.
Some of the sites I have been on limit the number of characters you can enter in the CC field, so I end up having to not only delete the spaces, but also enter the last few digits of the CC manually. Not a huge deal, but just something that should not be necessary.
Or... without needing notepad... copy the numbers, paste in the CC field, delete spaces, copy last few digits from Citi app, paste in browser cc field. But still neck pain inducing...
More Citicard VAN woes today. App cannot connect to their servers and getting the blue screen. It's getting more unreliable by the day. Any alternatives?
Except the one problem is that there is no limit. And I have had issue with Merchants such as Home Depot(twice) not being able to process a number from this and just cancels my order (no call or nothing).
2devnull said: Except the one problem is that there is no limit.BOA's ShopSafe lets you set limits in similar fashion to Citi's VAN. There's no stand-alone app (that I'm aware of) to launch ShopSafe, but now that Citi's VAN no longer supports its standalone app, launching BOA's ShopSafe is so much faster/easier than VAN:
1) Login to your BOA account 2) Under your list of accounts, click the arrow symbol located to the left of the account name. That'll expand out additional links availble for that account. 3) Click on expanded link "Create a ShopSafe account number", which launches the ShopSafe app in a separate window
Once inside the app, the only additional authentication needed is to enter the 3 digit CVC code located on the back of your physical card. (If you have multiple BOA CC's, you can switch between physical CC accounts within the ShopSafe app, but you'll need to enter the correct 3 digit CVC code for whichever physical card you switch to).
Even w/ the shortcut URLs posted in this thread for Citi VAN, that service is still a pain in the ass to use (as you have to login at least TWICE). I'm no fan of BOA, but Citi has lost my business to them because of the ease w/ which ShopSafe works. (The old stand-alone VAN app was the easiest to use, but alas, that's no longer an option).
TheDiggler said: There's no stand-alone app (that I'm aware of) to launch ShopSafeHold the presses! Using my Google-fu, found this link: https://www.mbnashopsafe.com/slimclient.html
At the link above, had a heck of a time getting the ActiveX control installed but finally managed to do so. That, in turn, installed a stand-alone ShopSafe app on my PC, which when executed, simply stated: A ShopSafe upgrade is now available. Plesae click the "Continue" button to proceed. Upon clicking the "Continue" button, it opened up a web browser to this URL: https://www.mbnashopsafe.com/VistaInstall.html
The web-page above contains a link to download ShopSafe.exe, which (in my test machine running Windows XP) works!
Like Citi's former VAN stand-alone app, ShopSafe's supports drag & drop capabilities of the CC # (WITHOUT any blank spaces), exp. date, CVC #, etc. In my test XP machine, the ShopSafe app would NOT drag 'n drop values into Notepad, but it had no problems doing so into IE and even Wordpad.
BTW, BOA acquired the ShopSafe program when they bought out MBNA. As evidenced by the links above, they still use MBNA domain name to run this program.
Boy, I am so glad to find this forum! Just like Space, I am pissed off at Citibank, like hell! For years the V.A.N. service from Citibank was outstanding. They nice Windows app "citiucs.exe" provided all the convenience I needed. Around October of 2012 they suddenly went crazy and pulled the plug on the Windows app, forcing everybody to go through the gazillions of efing clicks on their website. A couple of weeks ago (i.e., January 2013) they went even crazier and now force everybody to go through this "activation code" nonsense that calls phone numbers listed on the account. This, by the way, does not work for me - the blue "Continue" button either does nothing or pops up the ridiculous "Enter keywords for search" dialog. WTF?!? There must be a bug in their JavaScript code that makes this impossible. Anybody else experienced this? I spent half a day with their dense and inept tech support who in the end were unable to resolve this at all So, no more Virtual Account Numbers from Citibank for me - they effectively took it away. This really sucks. I wonder why all this sudden craziness; did they get hacked, or what? Are they going to discontinue their VAN program? Isn't it supposed to protect THEM from on-line fraud in the first place?!? Shouldn't THEY be interested in having this program used as widely as possible? Something does not click here. Well, they are just pissing off legitimate customers to no end. But thanks to this thread I learned about similar services from BofA and Discover. Great! So, bye, bye Citibank, f.u.
vipercon wrote "waste 2 min. to call and dispute the charges" (??) I wonder in what kind of utopia is he/she living? It's more like wasting 2 freaking months!
TheDiggler said: If the steps above work, the Flash VAN app will pop open, at which point you'll need to login directly into that app. Thanks Diggler - You the man!! Talk about Deja Vu
aromring said: vipercon wrote "waste 2 min. to call and dispute the charges" (??) I wonder in what kind of utopia is he/she living? It's more like wasting 2 freaking months!
I've had to dispute charges half a dozen times in the last 20 years. It has never taken more than 15 minutes.
Some merchants don't have an elaborate and expensive secure shopping cart system. Just used CITI VAN to pay for something via email. I simply pasted the number in the message without worrying that it will be usable to anyone except the merchant, and only up to the order amount. (what is a chance that hackers will get a hold of it before the merchant?). This is something I would never be able to do with a regular card number.
Absolutely correct. VAN numbers saves a ton of headache and worries. Many people assume that all online merchants go through some sort of big brother validation before they are allowed to take your credit cards online. They even have a sense of comfort seeing their browser display a lock or green showing SSL is used (anyone can get an SSL cert for a few bucks). The truth is that most online merchants don't have any secure backends/offices or take any care in protecting your credit card. I have even seen slips sent to the warehouse to fulfill with the credit card number on it. Those who like to live with a false sense of security are those that the credit cards CSRs are mostly on the phone with 24x7x365.
^^^ Don't unilaterally diss SSL or the fact that it only costs a few bucks to get (and must be renewed every ~2 yrs). It does what it's supposed to do -- end to end encryption of the submitted info, preventing MITM attacks. It doesn't prevent the merchant or the card processor from breaking credit card laws.
scripta said: ^^^ Don't unilaterally diss SSL or the fact that it only costs a few bucks to get (and must be renewed every ~2 yrs). It does what it's supposed to do -- end to end encryption of the submitted info, preventing MITM attacks. It doesn't prevent the merchant or the card processor from breaking credit card laws.
Well, that is just not good enough for credit card info. Let's be very clear, End-to-End is defined from one's browser/client/app to a termination point. After that point, unfortunately your credit card is then in the clear. Depending on how secure (and most of the times it is not, believe me I see this everyday) the handling is by the merchant after the termination point, your credit card is unfortunately at the mercy still of several types of attacks. PCI-DSS standards don't even cover mobile devices, so if you put your credit card into some mobile app that runs native on a device, chances are the service behind it don't need to do any encryption and there is no compliance standard that they should/must adhere to currently. Those that do are only the big names, and even they do not do it well, much less the smaller guy who doesn't care squat to protect your card once they get their charge on it.
Yes, VANs are good for this. But you're not liable for unauthorized transactions, so what are you worried about? Let the banks, processors and merchants worry about their security.
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