4 Min Read | Published: November 1, 2021
Credit cards you can use instantly after approval offer new digital wallet options for safe and convenient mobile payments online and in-store. Here’s how they work.
At-A-Glance
If your new American Express® Card is eligible for an Instant Card Number, it can be used immediately and instantly added to mobile digital wallets including Apple Pay™, Samsung Pay, Google Pay™, Fitbit Pay™, and PayPal – before you get your card in the mail.
Mobile digital wallets create a kind of virtual credit card number for each transaction, adding another layer of security that protects actual account numbers.
An abundance of emerging payment options is coming soon to a digital wallet near you – and some, like instant access credit cards, have already arrived. Instant Card Numbersfrom American Express, for example, can take you from application to purchase faster than you might imagine – after all, it’s got “instant” in its name. Although commonly called “instant approval” credit cards, these options don’t promise approval: Instead, they render an immediate decision by evaluating your Card application in real-time. If you’re approved and eligible for instant card number access, you can add your new Instant Card Number1 to your mobile digital wallet, there and then.
Shop Right Now with Instant Credit Card Numbers
Let’s say you’re furniture shopping and found the perfect sofa on sale – but today only. The store offers to approve you for its credit card on the spot, but the interest rate is high and the card can only be used in that store. You know you can do better, but there isn’t time to wait for a new card to arrive in the mail. An instant credit card number may be the way to bring that sofa home.
How instant credit cards work: You apply for a credit cardonline or over the phone. If you apply with Amex, and are approved and eligible, you get a link that provides instant access to your new Card number. Better still, that Instant Card Number can be automatically loaded directly into any one of five popular mobile digital wallets. Your physical card will still arrive in the mail a few days later – but in the meantime, you can be sitting on your new sofa purchased with your Instant Card Number.
Until now, using an instant credit card number was a manual process: The card number could be used immediately, but doing so required you to write down or memorize your account number, expiration date, and security code. Even with a mobile wallet, you’d have to manually load that information into your digital wallet. Some Card Members still use that manual process, while others prefer the new one-click automation capability.
Like any credit card application, Instant Card Number approval is not guaranteed. Creditworthiness is a factor, and the card issuer must be able to authenticate your identity. And, as always, terms apply. For more on how to get an instant approval credit card, check out “How to Get an Instant Approval Credit Card – and Use it Instantly!”
Instantly Push Your Instant Card Number to Apple Pay
Now, Amex has introduced a quick and seamless way to add your new American Express® Card to Apple Pay digital wallets at the time of Card application, if approved and eligible. Customers can add their new Instant Card Number to their Apple Wallet on their iPhone or Apple Watch and begin using it in apps, on the web, and in stores wherever Apple Pay is accepted. For a limited time, this level of seamless integration between instant approval credit card numbers and Apple Pay is only available from American Express.
Other mobile digital wallets that can instantly accept a new American Express Card via web browser are Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Fitbit Pay and – most recently – Paypal, which became available in May 2021.
How to add your Instant Card Number to Apple Pay: When applying for an Instant Card Number online, if approved, you’ll receive a notification screen telling you your physical Card will arrive in the mail and offering the option to get your Card number now. After reviewing a few online documents, you’ll get a screen showing your card account information. At that point, you’ll be offered the chance to choose your preferred digital wallet and simply click to add your new Instant Card Number to it (see accompany screen capture).
Mobile Wallets Mask the Real Account Number
Are you reluctant to store your credit card number on a vendor’s web site in the face of recent data breaches? Mobile digital wallets can help alleviate those concerns. Mobile wallets generate a unique number for each transaction you make, protecting the actual account number. This is similar to the way Amex’s vPayment virtual payment solutionfor business and corporate Cards assigns a single-use account number to each transaction.
Purchases made with American Express Cards via mobile digital wallets are securely linked to your actual Card number and appear on your normal account statement.
The Takeaway
Emerging mobile and digital payment technologies are combining with security concerns to drive a multitude of innovative credit card technologies. These aim to add extra security to your purchases, make them more convenient, or both. Instant application approval and access to your account number lets you put a new credit card to work immediately, and loading your card into a digital wallet can hide your account information from prying eyes.
1Instant Card Number eligibility is based on our ability to instantly authenticate you. If you are eligible for Instant Card Number, you will receive an Instant Card Number that you may be able to use virtually anywhere American Express is accepted and a physical Card will not be required. In certain instances (for example, if we cannot instantly authenticate you) you may only be able to use your Instant Card Number at a select merchant until you receive your physical Card. You may not have access to your full credit line until after you confirm receipt of your physical Card. We will mail your physical Card within 3-5 days of account approval.
Julie Andersonis a freelance writer whose past roles include professor of computer science and Technology Director of InformationWeek.
All Credit Intelcontent is written by freelance authors and commissioned and paid for by American Express.
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