Although they've been around for years, with relatively little success, the time may be right for disposable card numbers. However, this time, the emphasis should be on debit, the payment of choice for many younger consumers.

A compelling case can be made for disposable debit which:

• is the favored payment vehicle for the under-30 crowd, and often the ONLY payment option for high school and college students
• differentiates your checking account from 16,000 other U.S. providers
• encourages more debit card usage
• cements account relationships
• adds value to online banking archives
• provides excellent PR (customer advocacy) and branding benefits

But while great strides have been made in educating consumers about credit card fraud protection, the issue is murkier on the debit side.

Consumer appeal
We were reminded of the appeal of disposable card numbers when reviewing Cambrian House <cambrianhouse.com>, a Web-based venture attempting to "open-source" the business-startup process. While we don't see that taking off, the company does maintain an interesting database of user-submitted business ideas. Of the 433 ideas listed, the most popular according to site visitors is:

Self-destructing credit cards submitted by Rohan Pinto

Essentially what Mr. Pinto is proposing is the one-time-use credit card number offered since the late 1990s by Citibank, American Express, and, more recently, Discover Card (see inset). The main difference is the name, which actually is pretty good, if it hasn't been trademarked yet (we couldn't find any business using the term in a quick Google).

--JB