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these days our anonymity gets less and less and today I remembered that I actually had a virtual credit card, that I might use to shop more anonymous, from Entroypay.

Now Entropay states:

"Financial information and personal data are not listed nor shared with merchants, giving you the confidence to spend freely. In addition, statements from credit and debit cards used to fund your EntroPay account will only show “EntroPay UK” as the transaction description. Your personal information is only used to administer your account, improve our service offerings and provide the products you have requested." Source: https://www.entropay.com/privacy

Now the first question is, how believable that is and if it is not just marketing blurbing that is not legally binding. For example personal data is used to "provide products you have requested" means what? Maybe I am paranoid, but I'm just asking.

Secondly, is there any alternative in 2012 in terms of (truly) anonymous payment methods? In the country I lived in before there were "PaySafe" cards everywhere, luckily. But now that I moved (to a also conservative country), there is no such card. Thus my only / preferred option for (mostly online) purchases would be a virtual, anonymous (pre-paid) creditcard.

Do you guys know any options that are accessible to any global citizen?

Cheers

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Do you guys know any options that are accessible to any global citizen?

Prepaid and stored value cards are anonymous. For an arbitrary reason, the really anonymous ones only allow you to load $500 but there is no regulation that dictates this amount.

In the USA, these cards are exempt from being declared at border crossings. Not because they look like credit cards, but because they are exempt by the US Treasury and Customs.

The cons is that there are generally fees to use them.

US DOJ has done research showing that some groups take advantage of the exemption moving upwards of $50,000 a day between borders, but Congress is fine with this exemption and the burden is always on the government to determine "illicit origin". Stigmatizing how money is moved is only a 30 year old phenomenon, but many free nations do not really have capital controls, they only care that you pay taxes and that the integrity of their stock markets are upheld. Aside from that there are no qualms about anonymity, except from your neighbors but they dont matter for a global citizen.

In theory, the UK should have more flexibility in anonymity options, such as stored value cards with higher limits.

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  • This is true. But if you check the forums that discuss such matters, the problem seems to be that such cards cannot be purchases anonymously or especially not by foreigners, if I am not wrong. So while they don't need declaration at the border, they seem to imply declaration (of identity) when I buy them - or am I wrong?
    – grunwald2.0
    Commented Oct 27, 2012 at 18:25
  • there are two types of stored value cards for this issue. The $500 max limit ones are completely anonymous and you buy them at convenience stores with cash. There are other "anonymous" cards for the "unbanked" that require you to ironically open a bank account with the issuer and provide you with information so they can comply with banking acts. In the USA these have a max balance of $10,000 due to a reporting requirement for cash deposits/withdrawals over $10,000
    – CQM
    Commented Oct 27, 2012 at 19:17

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