How Businesses Can Use Virtual Card Issuing

Virtual cards are a powerful tool to build loyalty, pay remote workers and power innovative commerce experiences. 

Global card issuing is complex. A successful program requires a country-by-country implementation approach. Rapyd recognizes how complicated the payment industry is and how complicated card issuing can be. In this post, we’ll cover virtual card issuing programs and help you evaluate if issuing virtual cards is right for your business. 

What is a Virtual Card?

A virtual card is a credit, debit or prepaid card that isn’t a physical piece of plastic. They’re great for online purchases and they offer recipients a convenient digital payment method. 

For businesses, virtual cards offer a fast, easy and low-cost way to issue their own cards, without the cost and complexity of printing and shipping physical cards.

What Are Prepaid Virtual Cards?

Prepaid virtual cards give businesses the ability to issue cards to employees, gig-workers, customers and other recipients. The cards are connected to an account that the business controls. The business can then push funds to those cards. 

Businesses can also give customers the ability to load their own funds onto cards from bank accounts, digital wallets, or via cash at kiosks or retail locations.

Because your business controls the issuing program, you can issue cards that are only approved for specific types of transactions or at specific retailers. This gives businesses the flexibility to create cards for a variety of use cases such as:

• Build loyalty with cards that can only make purchases on your online stores or marketplace
• Issue cards to food delivery drivers that are only approved for purchases for a limited amount at specific restaurants 
• Issue virtual business cards to employees to use for travel and expenses 
• Push funds to a virtual prepaid card to pay gig-workers even if they do not have their own bank accounts 

Is Issuing Right for You?

A card issuing program is a powerful way to pay workers, empower unbanked consumers and create loyalty. There are many decisions to make, from in-sourcing versus outsourcing program management to fraud monitoring, compliance, authorization rules and even the types of cards to issue. 

Understanding and considering your options is critical to successfully aligning your program with your business’s strategic objectives. Rapyd has created the guide, Five Strategic Questions to Answer Before Launching a Global Prepaid or Debit Card Issuing Program, to help you think through key strategic decisions, avoid mistakes and align your card issuing program with your goals.

How to Issue Your Own Cards? 

Businesses can Issue prepaid cards using Rapyd Issuing. Foreign exchange, compliance, KYB, and fraud protection are built-in making it easy for businesses to launch and scale their program.

Download the Rapyd Guide: Five Strategic Questions to Answer Before Launching a Global Prepaid or Debit Card Issuing Program