A system and method are disclosed in which a user engaging in an online or in-person transaction with a merchant may create automatic expiring transactions for a credit card. The user provides the credit card information to an online interface or a point-of-sale device but specifies an expiration date that is on or before the actual expiration date of the credit card, known as an artificial expiration date. A token for the merchant is generated with the artificial expiration date. The issuing bank will honor the transaction with the artificial expiration date using the merchant-specific token, and the token may continue to be used with the online merchant until the artificial expiration date.