Set up anonymous email and payments

Two things usually identify you when you sign up for a service: the email address you register with and the card you pay with. They are separate problems with separate solutions, and one of them has a legal ceiling.

The honest position on payments is this. Because of know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering rules, no mainstream provider offers a genuinely anonymous card; identity checks are legally required to issue one. For most people the realistic goal is masking, where the merchant never sees your real details, rather than untraceability. Genuine untraceability means stepping outside the card networks entirely, through cash-bought prepaid instruments or privacy-focused cryptocurrency. Both approaches are covered below.

Options are given for the United States and the United Kingdom in parallel. This guide is a companion to Browse the web anonymously; read that first if you have not defined your threat model.

Part 1: Email

There are two different goals here. Be clear about which one you need.

Level A: Masking, to protect your real inbox

An alias service gives every signup its own forwarding address that lands in your normal inbox. If a company is breached, only that alias is exposed, and you disable it and move on.

Aliases do not make you anonymous. They forward to your real inbox, so the alias provider knows the link between the two. This is exposure reduction, not identity separation.

Widely used options, all available in the US and the UK because they are web services rather than regional products:

SimpleLogin is open source and part of the Proton ecosystem. The free tier covers a small number of aliases; paid plans add unlimited aliases and custom domains.
addy.io is open source with a generous free tier, and is the main option that can be self-hosted if you want full control.
DuckDuckGo Email Protection is free, low-friction and strips trackers from forwarded mail. It suits casual signups.
Firefox Relay is free for a handful of masks, with an inexpensive paid tier.
Apple Hide My Email is the most convenient option if you already pay for iCloud+.

Level B: A fresh identity

When a signup genuinely should not trace back to you, do not alias your real inbox. Create a new mailbox that was never connected to you:

Use a privacy-focused provider such as Proton Mail or Tuta.
Create the account over Tor.
Supply no phone number and no recovery address that leads back to you.

That is what decouples the identity. An alias cannot, because it always leads home.

Part 2: Payments

The options below run from easiest to most private. Choose the one that matches your threat model rather than the most private one available.

Rung 1: Masked or virtual cards

These generate a throwaway card number for each merchant or transaction, so the merchant never sees your real card and a breach cannot reach your bank account. The provider is fully identity-checked and knows who you are, so this is compartmentalisation and fraud protection rather than anonymity.

United States: Privacy.com is the common choice, issuing per-merchant virtual cards with spending limits and the ability to pause or close any card. It requires a US bank account.
United Kingdom: Revolut disposable virtual cards regenerate a new number after each transaction, and Wise also issues virtual cards. Both providers carry out identity checks.

These suit free trials, unfamiliar merchants, and subscriptions you want to be able to cancel cleanly.

Rung 2: Prepaid instruments bought with cash

Buying a prepaid card or voucher with cash, in person, is what actually breaks the link between your identity and the payment, because nothing about the purchase is recorded against your name.

paysafecard is a prepaid voucher bought for cash at retail and spent online using a code. It is anonymous at the point of purchase and is available in the US, the UK and much of Europe. Per-voucher limits apply and acceptance is not universal.
Prepaid Visa and Mastercard gift cards are sold at retail in both countries and are anonymous when bought with cash.

There is a catch. Many online checkouts run address verification, matching a name and postal or ZIP code against the card. An unregistered cash-bought card can fail that check, so some cards must be registered with at least some personal details before online use, which reintroduces an identifying data point. Plan for it.

Rung 3: Privacy-focused cryptocurrency

Monero is designed for privacy and is pseudonymous by default, offering stronger separation than a conventional card. Some privacy-respecting services accept it directly, and a few still accept cash sent by post. The trade-offs are a learning curve, price volatility and limited acceptance.

One category to treat with caution

Newer virtual-card providers advertise anonymous cards funded by cryptocurrency with no identity checks. Some may work as described, but they are young, variable in trustworthiness and operate in a legal grey area. Do not route anything you cannot afford to lose through an unproven provider.

How this maps to the tiers

Tier 1, everyday privacy: an email alias and a masked card. This covers most people and takes very little effort.
Tiers 2 and 3, serious and high-risk: a fresh mailbox created over Tor, plus a cash-bought prepaid instrument or Monero, with no reuse across identities.

What still identifies you

Clean email and clean payment are not sufficient on their own.

Delivery and billing addresses. A physical address tied to you unmasks everything upstream of it. For physical goods this is the hardest problem to solve.
Address verification checks. As above, these can force identifying details back into an otherwise anonymous payment.
Reuse. The same alias, card or username across two identities links them permanently. One identity, one set of throwaways.
Behavioural metadata. Timing, writing style and the device fingerprint you sign up with can all correlate a clean account with your real one. Pair this guide with the browser and device advice in Browse the web anonymously and Browse privately on your phone.

Staying within the law

Identity checks exist to prevent fraud and money laundering. Everything above is intended for legitimate privacy: reducing your data footprint, avoiding commercial profiling and protecting sensitive research. Keep within each service’s terms and the law. The goal is privacy, not evading identification you are legally required to provide.

Sources and further reading

Payment providers, identity-check thresholds and prepaid rules change frequently and vary by country. Re-verify availability and requirements before relying on any option here.