Cloaked Pay is designed to protect your real bank or card information — but in order to do that, it still needs a secure way to fund your transactions behind the scenes.

To start using Cloaked Pay, you’ll need to link at least one funding source: a bank account, debit card, or credit card from your existing financial institution. 

Here’s why: Cloaked Pay is not a bank account or a credit card. It’s a secure pass-through system — meaning that when you use one of your Cloaked virtual cards, we charge your linked account for the actual purchase amount. This is what allows you to keep your true financial details hidden while still completing real-world transactions.

Adding a funding source is a one-time setup step and is required before you can activate or use any Cloaked Pay cards. Rest assured, your financial details are encrypted and never shared with merchants. Cloaked’s entire system is built to prioritize privacy and security at every layer.

Therefore, when you use a Cloaked virtual card to pay a merchant, a funding source is required to complete the payment flow:

1. You make a purchase with a Cloaked Pay virtual card.
2. The merchant processes the charge to that card.
3. Cloaked securely draws the funds from your linked funding source to pay for the transaction.