# Home

When customers save payment card information to their account or use an
existing payment card in **Chrome** or **Android** , eligible cardholders can be
prompted to enroll for a
[virtual card number](https://developers.google.com/pay/virtual-cards-v1/support/faq#expandable-1) (VCN).
This process, also known as
[virtual card enrollment](https://developers.google.com/pay/virtual-cards-v1/reference/vcn-sequence-diagrams#enrollment),
is illustrated below (in Chrome):

![Virtual Cards number enrollment](https://developers.google.com/static/pay/virtual-cards-v1/images/vcn_enrollment_flow.png)

In subsequent checkouts, cardholders have the option to select the virtual card
number, illustrated below in Chrome, and Google Pay Autofill automatically
completes the payment form.

![Virtual Cards number retrieval](https://developers.google.com/static/pay/virtual-cards-v1/images/vcn_retrieval_flow.png)

In most cases, cardholders aren't prompted to add in additional information
(CVV and expiry date). This process is known as
[virtual card retrieval](https://developers.google.com/pay/virtual-cards-v1/reference/vcn-sequence-diagrams#retrieval).

## Benefits

Virtual card numbers are simple to enroll in, and benefit cardholders and
financial services companies alike (see how to
[Get started](https://developers.google.com/pay/virtual-cards-v1/overview/get-started) with you integration).

For **financial services companies**, virtual card numbers reduce risk and
increase transaction rates while giving more insight into merchant activity.

- **Fraud reduction:** Virtual card numbers provide more transaction context for
  risk-analysis, letting financial services companies and card networks control
  authentication challenges at transaction time.

- **Improved shopping cart conversion:** Some customers abandon checkout when
  presented with a risk-based authentication challenge (such as entering the
  payment card CVC/CVV). Virtual card authentication challenges don't require
  the physical card.

- **Improved authorization:** Tokenized payments have shown to improve
  authorization rates.

For **cardholders**, virtual card numbers simplify the checkout process and
reduce the risk of their card data being stolen.

- **Increased security:** Virtual card numbers hide physical card information
  and help protect against fraud.

- **Reduced complexity:** After saving a card to Google Pay Autofill on
  Chrome or Android and enrolling in virtual card numbers, cardholders can
  automatically enter payment information during checkout. If the cardholder's
  financial institution detects increased risk, it can issue an authentication
  challenge such as a one-time password (OTP) over SMS.

- **Reduced errors:** Virtual card numbers reduce the chance of declined
  transactions due to missing or incorrect payment information.

The end-to-end process flow of a payment transaction using virtual card numbers
is detailed on the [FAQ](https://developers.google.com/pay/virtual-cards-v1/support/faq#expandable-20).

## Supported countries

Virtual Cards are available for eligible cards in the U.S.

[Get started](https://developers.google.com/pay/virtual-cards-v1/overview/get-started) with your
integration!