Customise your programme
Learn how to customise Stripe Issuing to the unique needs of your business.
Stripe Issuing allows you to customise your programme to fit your business needs. View the most common customisation options:
You can view your programme setup from the Issuing Dashboard settings.
BIN Setup
A Bank Identification Number (BIN) is a 6 or 8-digit identifier at the beginning of a card number. The BIN represents both the card network and the bank that issues the card. A BIN is licensed for you when you create your programme. Most users have one BIN per Issuing setup.
Account ranges are the digits that immediately follow the BIN on a card number. For 6-digit BINs, these are the seventh to ninth digits on a card. For 8-digit BINs, the account range is the ninth digit on a card. BINs work together with account ranges to help acquirers identify the card issuer. Set up your Issuing programme on either a shared BIN or a dedicated BIN:
- Shared BIN: Your BIN is shared with other card network users. This is the default and recommended option for most users because it’s the simplest and least costly to enable. A user on a shared BIN might have a unique account range to help acquirers identify authorisations coming from that user.
- Dedicated BIN Beta: The entire BIN is only associated with your account(s).
Card product type
Card product type is a setting that affects the features available to you and your cardholders through Stripe Issuing. We recommend selecting a card product type based on the size of your business and what you purchase with the cards.
Note
Card product type differs from card type. Card type usually indicates a different aspect of the card, such as whether it’s a credit or debit card.
Stripe offers four primary card product types:
| Type | Description | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Visa Business | Helps small businesses and organisations separate business and personal expenses. This allows your business to better manage cash flow. This includes business tooling like receipt capture and accounting software integrations. | Small businesses with <100 employees – or platforms who serve them – who want to manage their business expenses. |
| Visa Business Signature | Same as Visa Business, with extra perks and benefits. | Designed for Small businesses to optimise their cash flow and earn rewards for their business. Ideal for businesses that seek rewards and protection benefits. |
| Commercial Corporate card | Helps employees pay their travel and entertainment (T&E) expenses securely. Your company has access to granular information to effectively manage spending. | Medium-size businesses to large enterprises (100+ employees) – or platforms who serve them – who primarily need to manage spend on travel and entertainment expenses. |
| Commercial Fleet card | Provides payment solutions to manage all expenses generated by a vehicle fleet operation, including fuel, maintenance and repairs. | Medium-size to large enterprises (100+ employees) – or platforms who serve them – who manage fleet expenses. |
| Commercial Purchasing card | Expedites the procurement process and saves cost by eliminating the need to issue purchase orders for procurement, invoices, and cheques. | Medium-size to large enterprises (100+ employees) – or platforms who serve them – with use cases that don’t fit into Commercial Corporate or Commercial Fleet. |
The card product type you choose affects the type of data you receive for each transaction.
For example:
A user with a Commercial Fleet card receives specific fleet-related data for transactions, such as:
- Number of gallons pumped
- Type of fuel pumped
- Odometer readings
- Itemised fuel and non-fuel purchases
A user with a Commercial Corporate card receives specific travel and entertainment-related data for transactions, such as:
- Flight carrier
- Flight departure time
- Airport code
- Hotel check-in date
- Number of nights in a hotel stay
A user with a Commercial Purchasing card receives invoice-specific data for transactions, such as:
- Number of items purchased
- Quantity of each item
Set up multiple card product types on Stripe if more than one card product type is relevant for your business. You can’t use multiple card product types if you set up a Business card.
Network Preference
Stripe supports both the Mastercard and Visa card networks. When you onboard to Issuing, you decide which card network to issue cards with, and it’s considered your default network. To change your default network at any time, see Stripe Support for more details.
Multi-network issuing Beta
We now offer the option to issue cards on both Mastercard and Visa. With this functionality, you can issue cards on both networks simultaneously.
Issuing cards on both Mastercard and Visa is limited to beta users. You must be an Issuing customer to join the beta. To request access to the beta, log in to your Stripe account and refresh the page. Contact Stripe for more information.
Funding types
When setting up your Issuing programme, you need to choose how you want to fund the cards. Choose your funding type based on your card product type and what best suits your liquidity options. Stripe offers two options that support a variety of business needs:
| Funding option | Details | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Prepaid | Card balances are pre-funded into an account that’s reloaded by the platform (in case of a direct integration), or by a connected account, as often as necessary. | Pre-loading balances without an attached current account. |
| Credit | Card balances are linked to an external credit account. | Pre-loading balances with an attached external credit account. |
Funding options vary depending on the card product type you select.
| Card product type | Funding options |
|---|---|
| Visa Business | Prepaid, Credit |
| Visa Business Signature | Prepaid, Credit |
| Commercial Corporate | Prepaid, Credit |
| Commercial Fleet | Credit only |
| Commercial Purchasing | Prepaid, Credit |
Card benefits and rewards
Card benefits
All cards issued through Stripe have a roster of available cardholder benefits. By default, your cardholders receive automatically-included benefits that vary depending on the card product type of your programme. You can also enrol your programme in optional benefits that fit the needs of your use case and can help drive cardholder transactions in the categories you aim to incentivise spend for. Optional benefits are available for a fee.
By default, cardholders get the following benefits with each card product:
| Card product type | Included benefits |
| Visa Business |
|
| Visa Business Signature |
|
Commercial Corporate Commercial Purchasing Commercial Fleet |
|
Note
This table refers to Visa benefits only. For information about MasterCard benefits, please contact support or your account manager.
All programmes require the following services be provided to cardholders. You can offer the service to your cardholders yourself, or use the card network’s offering for a usage-based fee.
- Cardholder enquiry service
- Lost or stolen card reporting
- Emergency card replacement and emergency cash disbursement
Optional benefits
When setting up your programme, you can also choose to provide one or more additional, non-standard benefits from the list below. These benefits will incur a per active card fee when utilised that Stripe passes on to you. After you select the benefits you’re interested in or want your cards enrolled in, your Stripe account or support partner will work with you to provide additional details and make sure they’re set up properly.
Optional benefits are available to you through a third-party Stripe network partner. Enrolment isn’t effective until you receive confirmation from Stripe or our benefits partner. Certain terms, conditions and exclusions apply.
| Card product type | Optional benefits |
| Visa Business |
|
| Visa Business Signature |
|
Commercial Corporate Commercial Purchasing Commercial Fleet |
|
Marketing
Communicating benefit details to cardholders is critical to ensuring they find value in benefits and use them. Our card network provider must review and approve all marketing materials or cardholder-facing terms before publishing. We work with you during the approval process by supplying you with sample, pre-approved messaging if you don’t draft your own. This is a required step to launching a benefits programme. The review process can take 5-7 business days.
Rewards
Although Stripe doesn’t provide rewards on any of its issued cards, you can set up your own rewards programme on any of the cards you issue through us. Of the card product types Stripe offers, rewards are only a requirement for Visa Business Signature. The only requirement before going live is to make sure that our card network partner has reviewed and signed off on the reward terms and promotion details.