Create standard cards

Create standard cards with Issuing.

Standard cards are a quick way to launch your card program, allowing you to showcase your business branding without any lead times.

For our custom card product, see how custom cards work.

Legacy card branding settings

Introduction to personalization designs

Every physical card that you create is linked to a specific personalization design, which governs the aesthetic features of your physical cards. Stripe recommends you create a personalization design to set up your card branding before creating physical cards. Personalization designs are composed of:

Card bundle: Specifies the card’s tangible aspects, including its color and the type of chip embedded. For standard cards you can select between black and white card bundles.
Card logo: Your brand’s logo displayed on the card that you can upload. If you don’t upload any branding, your physical cards have your business name printed on them. If you’re a platform user issuing on behalf of your connected accounts, their physical cards have your platform’s business name printed on them.

A standard card design with the “Rocket Rides” card logo

Carrier letter text: Custom text on the card’s carrier material. Cards created with the individual shipping option are attached to a tri-fold carrier, which provides a space to include essential information for cardholders and to further showcase your brand identity.

A standard carrier letter with custom carrier text

Create a personalization design

You can manage personalization designs with the Stripe Dashboard or through the Personalization Design API. For more detailed guidance on managing personalization designs, see managing personalization designs.

Visit the Designs tab in the Issuing Dashboard.

Click New design on the upper right and select the Standard physical bundle type along with your bundle selection.

Follow the steps to upload your card logo and set your carrier text.
Review your personalization design. You can also optionally set this design as your account default here.
Click Submit to send your design for review.

Design review

Stripe reviews all personalization designs to make sure they comply with the guidelines set by our partner networks.

We approve almost all designs, but we might reject yours if it contains:

The name of another legal entity
A reference to a different network (for example, MasterCard, if you’re issuing on Visa)
The name of a geographic location
A reference to non-fiat currency (for example, cryptocurrency)
Advertising or promotional language
Inappropriate text or imagery

You can still create cards with an unapproved personalization design, but such cards aren’t fulfilled until the design has been approved.

See personalization design review to learn more.

Create a card

After you have a personalization design, you can start creating physical cards with that design. Include the ID of the personalization_design you want to use when creating the card. If the design has already been approved, cards you create with it are fulfilled right away. If the design is in review, the cards are fulfilled when the design is approved.

If you have any design set as the default, any card you create without specifying a design uses that default. See default personalization designs to learn more. Any physical cards you create without specifying any branding will have your business logo printed on them. If you’re a platform user issuing on behalf of your connected accounts, their physical cards have your platform’s business name printed on them.

Some physical bundles support printing a second line. This is typically used for a business name.

The full set of valid characters for the second line are alphanumeric characters and / -&:().'. There’s a 24 character limit.

Shipping your cards

The following shipping options and pricing apply to shipments originating from the US:

Use the shipping service parameter to set the delivery service.
Use the shipping type parameter to set your shipment packaging.
- Individual: Each card is affixed to a letter and is shipped in a standard sized envelope addressed to the recipient.
- Bulk: All cards ordered to the same shipping address and shipment recipient name on a given day are batched together into a single box and are shipped without letters or envelopes. There is a maximum of 2000 cards per box. The costs listed below are per shipment (that is, per tracking number).
Use the require_signature shipping parameter to set the signature preference. Not all shipping methods support signature on delivery.
Use the shipping phone_number to specify a phone number our courier partners can use to contact the shipping recipient in the event of a card delivery issue. For individual shipments to the EU/UK, if a phone number isn’t provided, we’ll provide the carrier with the phone number provided when the cardholder was initially created.

Card orders have tracking numbers where indicated. You can ship card orders to any non-restricted country. You can only send shipments without tracking numbers to addresses in the US or Canada. Cards shipped from the US to Puerto Rico follow the details listed under International destinations.

After your card order ships, we deduct associated card fees directly from your Stripe balance. You can see all of your account’s card fees in the Dashboard.

Destination	Service	Estimated arrival time	Individual cost	Bulk cost	Signature on delivery¹
Domestic	Standard (USPS)	5-8 business days	0.63 USD²
	Express	4-5 business days	13 USD	27 USD	+3 USD
	Priority	2-3 business days	27 USD	45 USD	+3 USD
International	Standard (Canada only)	8-12 business days	1.50 USD³
	Express	4-12 business days	30 USD	50 USD	+4 USD
	Priority	2-7 business days	40 USD	60 USD	+4 USD

¹No signature is the default setting. The above charges apply when signature on delivery is selected.

²The Domestic Standard Individual rate is based on the current metered letter rate as set by USPS and prices are subject to change.

³The International Standard Individual rate is based on the current first-class mail international rate as set by USPS and prices are subject to change.

Best practices for physical card orders

To ensure successful delivery of your cards, follow these recommendations:

Business name inclusion: For business addresses, include the business name as part of address line 1 or line 2. The business name is especially important when there are multiple businesses in the same building.
Apartment numbers: For residential addresses, always provide apartment numbers when applicable.
Consignee phone number: When placing Express and Priority card orders, provide a local phone number. In the event of any delivery issues, the courier will contact you at that number. Use the card object’s shipping.phone_number field.
Shipping to an APO, FPO, or PO Box: Shipments to an army post office, fleet post office, or PO Box have to be sent standard via USPS.
EORI numbers for UK and EU shipments: To expedite customs when shipping to the UK or European Union, provide an EORI (Economic Operators Registration and Identification) reference number. The format is typically a 2-letter country code followed by 12-15 numbers (for example: GB123456789123456). For bulk shipments, the EORI reference number is mandatory. For more information, see the card object’s shipping.customs.eori_number field documentation.
Canadian postal codes: Don’t include a space. For example, enter M5V 3L9 as M5V3L9.

Shipping country restrictions

Updating card shipments

You can update your card’s shipment even after creating your card, including the shipping service and address, through the Dashboard and Update Card API. Similar to card creation, you can use address validation features if you update your card’s shipping address.

After the card is submitted to the third-party printer for fulfillment, you can no longer update your shipment.

Cancelling cards

You can cancel a card at any time to make it inactive and unusable—but we still ship and bill for canceled cards.