I have several credit cards and can't carry them all. Is there a safe way to store card numbers and CVVs for online payments?
1 Answers
Use an encrypted password manager or your device's built-in encrypted autofill, never plain notes or spreadsheets.
- Apple devices: Settings → Wallet & Apple Pay → Autofill cards (or Safari's saved cards) stores card details in iCloud Keychain with end-to-end encryption, and it has an optional security code (CVV) field. It's separate from Apple Pay's tokenised cards; it simply autofills web checkout forms.
- Cross-platform password managers such as 1Password and Bitwarden store cards, including the CVV, encrypted, with autofill on phone and laptop.
- Avoid the Notes app, spreadsheets, email drafts, chat apps and photos of cards. They're unencrypted or easily synced to places you don't control.
Good habits:
- Protect the vault with a strong master password and two-factor authentication.
- Use tokenised saved cards on big merchants (now standard in India for card-on-file), so you rarely need to type the CVV-less number anyway.
- Set per-card limits and turn off international or online use on cards you rarely use, through each bank's app.
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