i got a new mastercard.

citibank sent me a new mastercard with a new account number yesterday and i activated it today. they stated the old account number may have been compromised but there were not any illicit purchases that i read on any of my citicard statements. the old account number has been closed. this gives me peace of mind because i have made many online purchases and standard retail purchases. i thought of doing something like this sometime in the future but citicards did it for me. this should probably be standard practice. when you receive a new card you should be given a new account number. if your credit card company has not done this for you then you should call them and close your old account and get a new credit card and account number.

 

Hi, maybe you can consider using Virutual Account Numbers instead of your real Citibank credit card number when purchasing online. It will add one extra layer of security and I find it being accepted by many online merchants.

Cheers.

 

Most credit card issuers do not change account numbers unless there was a reason to do so such as the possibility of fraud, the company was bought out by another company, a change to the card registration information, or if you request to have another account number (with a valid reason). If they issued a new account number with every renewal for every customer, that would mean a major updating of their accounting systems with the new numbers for every subscriber (this update would occur almost constantly if the customer base was large). It would be like that if your bank kept changing your checking and savings accounts numbers every few years. They would want to avoid doing a wholesale change to their entire account number inventory and only do it unless you close your old account and open a new one. Nobody wants to do more work and maintenance than they have to.

BTW, virtual account numbers are becoming more widely used by many online banking systems.