Popular credit card service eliminated by Discover

One of the nation's largest financial institutions recently began informing borrowers that a popular feature created to help consumers avoid being stuck with fraudulent credit card debt would soon be discontinued.

Discover Financial Services recently emailed many of its credit card customers saying that the Secure Online Account Number program it runs to help consumers avoid credit card fraud will be discontinued as of September 8, according to a report from the Consumerist. The program was used to create unique credit card numbers that could be used for different retailers or even different transactions, so that consumers didn't have to turn over their actual sensitive account information.

The SOAN program is being discontinued because Discover has recently increased its security measures across the board, making those for the popular feature redundant, the report said. However, those consumers who have generated and stored unique numbers for specific online shopping sites will be able to retain those numbers through their card's expiration date.

Online credit card security has become a major issue for many institutions, and many are stepping up measures that will protect sensitive consumer financial information.