I have not ever put my credit card information on the internet because I am fearful of money being stolen from me and loosing control over charges. I have just purchased a prepaid card so that i could specifically get an Ultimate Guitar Pro subscription that I desperately want! They would not give me a subscription with a prepaid card. Hmmm…I do not think this is a practice that favours the consumer. I have read that Ultimate Guitar and Songster are Russian companies.
A 1 year subscription was $113/year with the claim of it being over 75% off. There were different subscription price quotes in different places on their website.
I am going to try Songster next-but they might be the same company.
Any other options like Ultimate Guitar you can recommend?
I think you can buy it in AppStore with your credits.
https://privacy.com/ … I heard only good things about this service.
Thanks. I doubt they will take this either because it is not listed as a approved payment method. I suspect I will need to give privacy.com my credit card #.
Definitely. You create your account add your credit card and then you can create virtual credit cards (which are for retailers indistinguishable from a regular card) with exact amount of credit, expiration date etc. It’s still “giving your credit card # on the internet”, but it’s probably the most secure way how to handle this kind of thing on today’s internet. But if you are a priori against giving your credit card number to anyone on the internet, it will not help you.
Prepaid ‘cash’ cards cannot generally be used to set up a subscription. This is controlled by the card companies and not by the vendor.
Most places that accept credit cards on the internet are pretty safe nowadays. You have to go through a lot of security checks to have a credit card accepting site and most now embed a credit card payment provider’s code into the site. This means that only the provider (usually big heavily scrutinised companies like stripe, elavon etc.) actually gets to see your card details and even then no real human gets to see them. My business sells almost exclusively on the internet and we literally cannot see the credit card details of any of our customers.
Quite surprisingly, allowing a vendor to store you card details is also very secure, more so in fact than typing them in each time. You are sending them down the line every time you type them. But when a vendor ‘stores’ you details they don’t actually have access to those details, what happens is the credit card company gives them a ‘token’ this is a unique GUID (Global Unique ID) with no information encoded into it, only the credit card company know what card is identified and it can only be used in the vendor that it was originally given to. That last bit is really what makes it very safe.
Buying something with your credit card over the phone is even worse and is probably the most insecure way to use your card as you are verbally telling a stranger over the phone all the details on your card necessary for them to go on a shopping spree. Actually this is also improving now with many companies using automated systems when you type the data in on your phone keypad. But still much less secure than a website.
Big name sites like Ultimate Guitar will be very secure as any hint of them being a source of fraud would destroy them almost instantly.
Wow, great explanation. Thanks
I do not know what I don’t know. I tried subscribing to Songsterr. They would not accept the prepaid card either.
The prepaid card said they can be used for online purchases. They should have clarified “cannot be used with subscriptions”
My ex was just charged for a Paramount + subscription renewal on his credit card. He was sure he requested the subscription not to renew in past. Someone may have accidently hit the Paramount + on the TV which unknowingly activated another subscription. He tried calling paramount to fix. He got little support saying that they did not have their credit # on file (probably as you have indicated above). He called master card. Master card was supportive, is going to reimburse him the charge on next bill, and has notified Paramount + to add a note to the file “DO NOT AUTO” renew the subscription.
Highland, what do you think of PAY PAL? (this way I only put my credit card on line once)
I certainly don’t encourage you to be reckless, but there are certain risks you just need to accept given the way the world works nowadays. I mean, we take risks every time we drive a car or walk across the street. It’s all about whether the risks are acceptable and somewhat manageable 
This scummy practice is what I really don’t like about UG. After trying and cancelling the free trial, ignoring a few offers etc, I finally got an offer for $24 for a year. I did purchase that one just for the access but it definitely leaves a sour taste when depending on whether I followed a link in my email from my phone I got one price vs the same link followed from the same email on my PC giving a different price.
I highly recommend Songsterr, they are 100% upfront about what you get and no bullshit ‘offers’. I’ve had reason to talk to staff twice now, once for a suggestion I had and once regarding a tab I was submitting that had an issue and they were good to deal with.
Plus songsterr you get real you tube tracks to play with vs UG’s midi crap.
Well I’ve been running a business that’s been selling over the internet for the last 20 years. It’s interesting actually to see how things have changed. Our customers can, and have always been able to, buy over the internet, by post or by telephone and watching how the proportions have changed has been quite instructive. When we started the internet was about 40% and now it’s probably more than 99%.
I hear you! I am getting left behind because of my paranoia. In my desperation to get UG , my solution was to buy a pre paid card to decrease the risk factor.
Well, the good outcome of all this is that you avoided subscribing to the inferior product and found a better alternative (Songsterr!?). They still want your credit card, but at least you get better service
This is the best advice you’re going to read all day.
We get in cars every morning and don’t think about the thousands who are killed every day on the roads.
Risk is part of living. Just don’t be this guy and you’ll be ok.
I have UG and did the subscription it’s just not very good. It’s almost like users” generated tabs. Some are so poorly done and many are simplified version or in an easier key.
I’m currently using Guitar Pro 8. They have their sheet music and included tabs on their site as well. About half the songs are full scores with notation from all instruments really cool.
What I like with UG Pro and Songsterr is that they have specific bass music/tabs. Can you filter Guitar Pro for just the bass and can you slow down it down, and loop it etc?
That and a whole lot more. It can show the fingerboard, change key change instruments. I use it to learn to create notations and tabs. It’s the most pro apps I’ve tried, one of the easiest for sure.
I think you can check out their song lists and sample as well as the App itself for free. Like everything else, these are for most popular songs, that few B side songs only a few of us like usually don’t get tabs treatment, 
There’s enough to keep me busy for a while.
I try and use PayPal as much as I can online, and I have it setup to send me a code every time there’s a purchase, so no one can scam me. It’s a bit of a pita, but it’s safer.
You can also see all your subscriptions on one screen and manage them from it. You don’t have to go to Paramount to cancel, you can cancel from PayPal.
About 10-12 years ago my PayPal account was hacked (before I turned on the added protection) and they cleaned me out, PP was easy to work with and everything was back to normal in a day. No hassle.
Good to know that PP was easy to work with! Did Pay Pal get you your money back?
Yeah, had it back in a day
Nice!