Making anonymous payments is an in-demand service, as people are becoming increasingly aware of cybercrime and how it can have devastating effects on your account and overall online presence. However, this means that you must be careful with every service that you use. This way you can get the most out of it. When it comes to learning how to pay anonymously, it’s important to understand that some services are location specific. They won’t allow you to top up your funds, while others are quick and easy to use.
Below is a helpful guide on how to pay anonymously and safely online and otherwise.
1. Masked Cards
Advantages
This is a disposable card that’s available for free through Abine.com. This is a legal card that enables you to make payments without revealing your real identity. The great thing about this card is that each top-up requires the owner’s approval (i.e. you).
You can also use this card to make online purchases. It works similarly to a pay-as-you-go SIM card that you would use for your burner phone or regular phone. You can only get the most out of it when you deposit funds, and that is completely under your control.
The service keeps your credentials completely hidden, and this includes your address. Only the credit card provider will be able to see your information.
Disadvantages
Masked cards typically come with a card limit of $500 which means you cannot spend more than that. Also, they don’t allow you to make recurring payments for things like gym memberships and it can be confusing to use them.
What to Do
Masked cards are useful if you only need $500 and if you don’t mind not being able to run monthly payments on them like your phone bill.
2. Prepaid Cards
Advantages
Prepaid cards are available for purchase at most grocery stores and drug stores. You buy them with cash and you can start using them right away. You can also purchase them online but that would compromise your privacy because you would need to provide the company with your address so they know where to deliver it. Of course, you could always activate your VPN when purchasing your prepaid card so that no-one but the credit company can see your information.
Disadvantages
Prepaid cards are easy to access but not without their cons. Most have a minimum limit of $20 and a maximum limit of $500. You need to provide your credentials when buying them which makes it easier for someone to trace them back to you. Topping them up can also be quite tricky because you have to provide your personal information but as we said, you could always avoid that by using a VPN.
What to Do
Think very carefully before you purchase a pre-paid card or only purchase it as a gift for someone else.
3. Bitcoin
Advantages
Bitcoin is a digital currency which you can use to make online transactions and even invest. It’s by far the most well-known cryptocurrency on the market and has been dubbed as “the future of money.” Here are 8 top reasons you should own Bitcoins.
It operates according to peer-to-peer technology known as a decentralized Blockchain. This means that there’s no central authority that governs how Bitcoin operates such as you’d find with conventional banks and financial institutions.
Disadvantages
Since Bitcoin operates according to a free-for-all and open Blockchain technology, it’s possible to trace transactions to their owners. This makes it hard but not impossible to make anonymous donations because your wallet address will be visible to the receiver.
While traceability and transparency are a good thing, they can be detrimental to privacy and anonymity. That’s why Bitcoin is considered pseudonymous.
What to Do
As you get used to Bitcoin and learn how to use it, you’ll find certain loopholes on how to pay anonymously using it.
Conclusion
So far, we’ve highlighted all the services and platforms that you can use to make anonymous transactions online and offline. But we merely scratched the surface as there are plenty of other options that we didn’t mention, such as Linden Dollars, MintChip, OpenCoin, Ripple and Litecoin.
Each one comes with its pros and cons as you’ve seen in the reviews we’ve done above and the best way to figure out what’ll work for you is to define what your intentions are and what features you need specifically.
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