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After a credit card fraud incident 3 years ago, I procured two separate credit cards for myself - one for in-person purchases and the other for online purchases. Benefits:
- if I cancel a card due to it being stolen or due to fraudulent activity, I'll still have use of the other card in the meantime.
- if fraudulent use occurs, I'll have a better idea of where my number could have been stolen.
- the card I use for online purchases has a feature called "ShopSafe", whereby I can generate unique credit card numbers, limits, and expiration dates for each merchant. If one attempts to use such a number at a different merchant, or over the limit, the transaction is declined*.
However, it is best to use a regular credit card number for Amazon. The ShopSafe feature doesn't work well due to Amazon's charges being submitted under several different merchant names:
"Amazon.com" - items sold directly by Amazon
"AMAZON MKTPLACE PMTS" - Marketplace items, possibly including ones "fulfilled by Amazon"
"Amazon Digital Svcs" - MP3 purchases
"Amazon Services Kindle" - Kindle purchases
etc.
It is possible to create separate ShopSafe numbers for each of the above Amazon categories, but then you need to select the appropriate number for your order, and not mix items in a single order.
If you mix Marketplace and Amazon.com items in a single order using a ShopSafe number, part of the payment may go through, but the credit card will be declined for the other items. You can then select a different ShopSafe number for paying the remaining items. However, you may get declined multiple times for a single order, as you can't know which items will be charged together or separately. It seems to depend on which locations the items are shipped from, as well as whether they are Amazon.com or Marketplace items. As indicated on the Amazon Help page, "Orders may be split into multiple shipments [...] Because we charge for items when they are shipped, this may result in multiple charges."
For a while, I was able to deal with the above issues by not mixing Amazon.com and Marketplace orders. However, recently Amazon submitted charges under 2 separate merchant names, even for an order which only contained Marketplace items. The only way to see the merchant name is from your credit card account, after a charge has been successful.
*The credit card/bank does not notify you when this happens - it is up to the merchant to inform the purchaser. So unfortunately, I have no way of knowing if any fraudulent use of my ShopSafe numbers has ever been attempted. But from reviewing my statements, at least I know that no fraudulent charges have succeeded.
- if I cancel a card due to it being stolen or due to fraudulent activity, I'll still have use of the other card in the meantime.
- if fraudulent use occurs, I'll have a better idea of where my number could have been stolen.
- the card I use for online purchases has a feature called "ShopSafe", whereby I can generate unique credit card numbers, limits, and expiration dates for each merchant. If one attempts to use such a number at a different merchant, or over the limit, the transaction is declined*.
However, it is best to use a regular credit card number for Amazon. The ShopSafe feature doesn't work well due to Amazon's charges being submitted under several different merchant names:
"Amazon.com" - items sold directly by Amazon
"AMAZON MKTPLACE PMTS" - Marketplace items, possibly including ones "fulfilled by Amazon"
"Amazon Digital Svcs" - MP3 purchases
"Amazon Services Kindle" - Kindle purchases
etc.
It is possible to create separate ShopSafe numbers for each of the above Amazon categories, but then you need to select the appropriate number for your order, and not mix items in a single order.
If you mix Marketplace and Amazon.com items in a single order using a ShopSafe number, part of the payment may go through, but the credit card will be declined for the other items. You can then select a different ShopSafe number for paying the remaining items. However, you may get declined multiple times for a single order, as you can't know which items will be charged together or separately. It seems to depend on which locations the items are shipped from, as well as whether they are Amazon.com or Marketplace items. As indicated on the Amazon Help page, "Orders may be split into multiple shipments [...] Because we charge for items when they are shipped, this may result in multiple charges."
For a while, I was able to deal with the above issues by not mixing Amazon.com and Marketplace orders. However, recently Amazon submitted charges under 2 separate merchant names, even for an order which only contained Marketplace items. The only way to see the merchant name is from your credit card account, after a charge has been successful.
*The credit card/bank does not notify you when this happens - it is up to the merchant to inform the purchaser. So unfortunately, I have no way of knowing if any fraudulent use of my ShopSafe numbers has ever been attempted. But from reviewing my statements, at least I know that no fraudulent charges have succeeded.