Card program setup
Beta
Last updated: June 14, 2023
To issue cards, you must first set up a card program with Checkout.com. A card program is a payments product that enables you or your customers to make card payments to suppliers or merchants, anywhere in the world.
To understand your card program requirements, Checkout.com will send you a questionnaire during the onboarding process. This will ask you to provide the following information about your business:
- operational setup – including fraud, risk, compliance, finance, and customer servicing information
- transactional volumes and limits – including average transaction value (ATV), daily and monthly limits, and merchant category code (MCC) restrictions
- policies and procedures – including Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Anti-Bribery, Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) prevention, and Know Your Customer (KYC) checks
Checkout.com uses the information collected from your answers to inform:
- your issuing account setup
- the characteristics of the card product(s) you'll require based on your needs
Your issuing account setup will vary depending on your use case, and the answers you supplied in the onboarding questionnaire. Among other things, your setup determines the relationship between:
- Checkout.com
- your business entity
- your sub-entities
- your cardholders
- your funds
Checkout.com can issue virtual cards to your business, so that you can perform online transactions to pay your suppliers or partners. With this setup:
- your cardholders will be individuals within your own business
- transactions performed by your cardholders will use funds from your main issuing account balance
- you can fund your issuing balance via bank transfer
If you use Checkout.com's Integrated Platforms solution, you can issue cards to your own customers. With this setup:
- your cardholders will be businesses or individuals that belong to one or more of your sub-entities
- transactions performed by your cardholders will use funds from their respective sub-entity's currency account balance
- you can fund a sub-entity's currency account by transferring funds from your main currency account
- you can process payments on behalf of a sub-entity
- you can receive transfers your sub-entity has made from their bank account to their currency account
You also have the option to use a joint currency account for the acquiring and issuing sides of your business. With a joint currency account, you can fund your issuing account balance using funds collected from payments processed through Checkout.com.
A card product represents a unique configuration of card characteristics, which include:
- the card scheme, or network
- the issuing country and currency
- whether the card is commercial (issued to your own business) or consumer (issued to your customers)
- whether the card is debit or prepaid
- whether you can issue physical cards, virtual cards, or both
- shipping options, if the card product allows physical cards
- whether the card is single-use or multi-use
- the card's lifetime
- 3D Secure (3DS) settings
Card products are configured at an entity level, and each entity may have more than one card product. For example, an entity that operates across multiple regions may need a card product for each issuing country and currency they require, despite the other card characteristics being equivalent.
When you issue a card and specify the card product, the issued card will inherit the characteristics defined by the card product.
Note
If you have more than one card product, specifying a card product when issuing a card is mandatory.
A commercial card is a card you issue to your own business. For example, to pay suppliers. A consumer card is a card you issue to your customers, so that they can perform transactions.
The information you're required to provide to Checkout.com varies depending on whether the card product will be for a commercial or consumer use case:
| Information | Required to issue commercial cards | Required to issue consumer cards |
|---|---|---|
Country and currency of the card | ||
Loading mechanisms for the card | ||
Whether you'll be issuing debit or prepaid cards | ||
Whether you'll be issuing virtual cards, physical cards, or both | ||
Transaction volumes | ||
Card spending limits | ||
Card restrictions | ||
Whether the card should be accessible via an ATM | ||
Whether Apple Pay and Google Pay should be enabled for the card | ||
How you will source and onboard your customers | ||
How you will operate the card program (customer servicing, fraud management, and AML processes) | ||
Any fees associated with the card |
A prepaid card is a card that is preloaded with funds available for use by the cardholder. You can choose whether to allow the card to be reloaded with additional funds when the initial balance is exhausted.
Additionally, you can choose whether the prepaid card should be single-use, meaning it will expire after a single successful transaction. Multi-use cards are usable until the funds have been exhausted.
Prepaid cards have the following limitations:
- cashback is not available
- the maximum daily load limit is 5000 USD
If your card product configuration is for a prepaid card, you will need a prepaid business identification number (BIN).
A debit card is a card with which cardholders access funds from your issuing account balance. You can also choose to link your debit cards to an e-money account where your customers' funds are held.
Debit cards are typically more widely accepted than prepaid cards, and have the ability to offer cashback.
If you plan to issue debit cards, you must meet the following requirements:
- you must provide a live customer service channel, such as phone or live chat – email support is not sufficient
- you must issue a physical card associated with the account
- you must perform full Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) checks on the cardholder — anonymous cards and simplified due diligence are not accepted
- the cardholder must be able to load the e-money account by wire transfer - for example, through SEPA, Faster Payments, or Swift
- the cardholder must be able to access their balance and transaction history through the internet, an ATM, a call center, and interactive voice response
- the card must have global ATM access
- the card must support purchases with cashback transactions
If your card product configuration is for a debit card, you will need a debit business identification number (BIN).
A virtual card allows your cardholders to perform online transactions. A physical card allows your cardholders to perform transactions online, and at physical points-of-sale (POS).
Your card product can be configured to only allow one, or both, types of card to be issued.