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Payments
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Platforms and marketplaces
Money management
Overview
Start an integration
Products
Global Payouts
Capital
Issuing cards
    Overview
    How Issuing works
    Global availability
    Manage fraud
    Cards
    Choose your card type
    Virtual cards
    Issue virtual cards
    Physical cards
    Manage cards
    Digital wallets
    Replacement cards
    Card programs
    Program management
    Customize your card program
    Add funds to your card program
    Credit Consumer Issuing
    Controls
    Spending controls
    Advanced fraud tools
    3DS
    Fraud challenges
    Real-time authorizations
    PIN management
    Issuing Elements
    Token Management
    Funding
    Balance
    Postfund your integration with Stripe
    Postfund your integration with Dynamic Reserves
    Purchases
    Authorizations
    Transactions
    Disputes
    Testing
    Merchant categories
    ATM Usage
    Issuing with Connect
    Set up an Issuing and Connect integration
    Update terms of service acceptance
    Connect funding
    Connected accounts, cardholders, and cards
    Embed card management UI
    Credit
    Overview
    Set up connected accounts
    Manage credit terms
    Report other credit decisions and manage AANs
    Report required regulatory data for credit decisions
    Manage account obligations
    Test credit integration
    Additional information
    Choose a cardholder type
    Customer support for Issuing and Treasury
    Issuing watchlist
    Marketing guidance (Europe/UK)
    Product and marketing compliance guidance (US)
Treasury
Manage money
HomeMoney managementIssuing cards

Create virtual cards

Create a cardholder and issue a virtual card.

Copy page

You can use the Dashboard or the Create a card endpoint to issue virtual cards to cardholders. Cardholders can use virtual cards immediately after you create them.

Create a cardholder

You can use the Dashboard or the Cardholders API to create a cardholder.

  1. Visit the Cardholders tab in the Issuing Dashboard.

    Issuing cardholders page
  2. Click Create cardholder on the upper right.

  3. Select cardholder type: individual or company. The full set of valid characters for both cardholder name and business name are alphanumeric characters and / -&:().'. There’s a 24 character limit.

    Issuing cardholder form type and name fields
  4. Add a billing address.

    Issuing cardholder form billing address fields
  5. If you’re creating a company card, add the tax ID number.

  6. Add contact information, which is required for certain features like digital wallets.

    Issuing cardholder form contact information fields
  7. Click Create cardholder.

Individual type cardholder requirements

When you select the individual cardholder type, you must add the cardholder’s legal first and last name and date of birth. Consider uploading government-issued ID, which may help reduce watchlist reviews.

Issuing cardholder form identity verification fields

If you issue cards to individuals for programs backed by Cross River Bank, you must record acceptance of the Cross River Bank Authorized User Terms before activating a card for that cardholder. See the Required Agreements for Issuing and Treasury for more information about which agreements you must present to account holders and cardholders.

Company type cardholder requirements

When you add a company name, ensure that it has a minimum of two words, for example: Stripe Inc.

Create a card

You can use the Dashboard to create a new card.

  1. Visit the Cards tab in the Issuing Dashboard.

    Issuing cards page
  2. Click Create card on the upper right.

  3. Search for the cardholder you created in Create a cardholder.

  4. Select Virtual for the type.

  5. Select Activate card.

    Create virtual card drawer
  6. Click Create.

Activate the card

For authorizations to be approved on a card, its status must be set to active. Past-due requirements block card activation.

Activate on creation

You can activate the card when creating it using the Dashboard or the API. In the Dashboard, when creating a card, click Activate card. Using the API, set status to active when using the create card endpoint.

Activate after creation

Alternatively, after creating an inactive card, you can activate it using the Dashboard or the API. To activate it using the Dashboard, select the card you want to activate, then click Activate card. To activate it using the API, use the update card endpoint to set its status to active.

Command Line
cURL
curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/issuing/cards/ic_1Cm3paIyNTgGDVfzBqq1uqxR \ -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:"
\ -d status=active

Re-activate after blocking

In some cases, multiple incorrect PIN attempts on a transaction deactivates a card, preventing further authorizations. To reactivate the card, use the Dashboard or the update card API to set the card’s status to active.

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