Issue a card

Last updated: November 28, 2024

You can create physical or virtual cards to issue to an individual or a business:

Virtual cards are activated upon creation by default, and the cardholder can start performing payments immediately.
Physical cards are posted to the cardholder along with the PIN. The card must be activated before the cardholder can perform payments.

Before you can issue a physical or virtual card, your card design must be approved by Checkout.com and the card scheme.
You must have created a cardholder to issue the card to.

Create a card.
For physical cards, activate the card.
To view a card's details or credentials, you can retrieve the card.
For next steps, learn how to manage cards and cardholder transactions.

To securely expose sensitive virtual card details to your cardholders through your iOS mobile app, use our iOS SDK.

You can create cards using the Dashboard and the API.

If the entity issuing the card has multiple card products configured, you must specify which card product to assign the card to. The card product sets the characteristics the card inherits, including the currency and card type.

Information

All cards have a maximum lifetime of three years from creation.

Sign in to the Dashboard.
Go to Issuing > Cards > Create card.
Select the type of card you want to create.
In the Cardholder dropdown, select the cardholder you created in the previous step.
Optionally, enter a Display name and Reference to help you identify the card.
In the Card product dropdown, select the card product you want to link the card to.
Select Create card.

Call the Create a card endpoint:

Specify the card type as either virtual or physical.
Provide the cardholder id returned in the create a cardholder response as the cardholder_id.
If your entity has multiple card products configured, provide the card_product_id.

To retrieve a card product's ID:

Sign in to the Dashboard.
Go to Issuing > Card products.
Select the required card product.
In the Card product details screen, copy the Card product ID value.

post

https://api.checkout.com/issuing/cards


1{
2  "type": "physical",
3  "cardholder_id": "crh_d3ozhf43pcq2xbldn2g45qnb44",
4  "card_lifetime": {
5    "unit": "Months",
6    "value": 6
7  },
8  "reference": "X-123456-N11",
9  "card_product_id": "pro_7syjig3jq3mezlc3vjrdpfitl4",
10  "display_name": "John Smith",
11  "shipping_instructions": {
12    "shipping_recipient": "John Paul Smith",
13    "shipping_address": {
14      "address_line1": "Checkout.com",
15      "address_line2": "90 Tottenham Court Road",
16      "city": "London",
17      "state": "London",
18      "zip": "W1T 4TJ",
19      "country": "GB"
20    }
21  }
22}

A successful response returns the card id.


1{
2  "id": "crd_fa6psq242dcd6fdn5gifcq1491",
3  "display_name": "John Smith",
4  "last_four": "1234",
5  "expiry_month": 5,
6  "expiry_year": 2025,
7  "billing_currency": "GBP",
8  "issuing_country": "GB",
9  "reference": "X-123456-N11",
10  "created_date": "2019-09-10T10:11:12Z",
11  "_links": {
12    "self": {
13      "href": "https://api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/crd_fa6psq42dcdd6fdn5gifcq1491"
14    },
15    "credentials": {
16      "href": "https://api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/crd_fa6psq42dcdd6fdn5gifcq1491/credentials"
17    },
18    "revoke": {
19      "href": "https://api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/crd_fa6psq42dcdd6fdn5gifcq1491/revoke"
20    }
21  }
22}

Set the is_single_use boolean to:

true – For single-use cards that are valid for one transaction only and are then automatically revoked
false – For multi-use cards that can be used for an unlimited number of transactions until the card expires, or is revoked

Virtual cards are activated on creation by default. To activate the card later, set the activate_card boolean to false.


1{
2  "type": "virtual",
3  "cardholder_id": "crh_d3ozhf43pcq2xbldn2g45qnb44",
4  "card_lifetime": {
5    "unit": "Months",
6    "value": 6
7  },
8  "reference": "X-123456-N11",
9  "card_product_id": "pro_7syjig3jq3mezlc3vjrdpfitl4",
10  "display_name": "John Smith",
11  "is_single_use": false,
12  "activate_card": false
13}


1{
2  "id": "crd_fa6psq242dcd6fdn5gifcq1491",
3  "display_name": "John Smith",
4  "last_four": "1234",
5  "expiry_month": 5,
6  "expiry_year": 2025,
7  "billing_currency": "GBP",
8  "issuing_country": "GB",
9  "reference": "X-123456-N11",
10  "created_date": "2019-09-10T10:11:12Z",
11  "_links": {
12    "self": {
13      "href": "https://api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/crd_fa6psq42dcdd6fdn5gifcq1491"
14    },
15    "credentials": {
16      "href": "https://api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/crd_fa6psq42dcdd6fdn5gifcq1491/credentials"
17    },
18    "revoke": {
19      "href": "https://api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/crd_fa6psq42dcdd6fdn5gifcq1491/revoke"
20    }
21  }
22}

After you've created a card, you can use the API to:

Get card details
Get card credentials – specifically the card number and CVV

After the cardholder receives their physical card and PIN, the card must be activated before they can begin performing payments.

You can activate physical cards using the Dashboard and the API. Alternatively, the cardholder can activate the card by performing their first Chip and PIN transaction at a point of sale (POS), or by withdrawing cash at an ATM.

Sign in to the Dashboard.
Go to Issuing > Cards.
Select the card you want to activate.
In the Card details screen that appears, select Activate card.

Call the Activate a card endpoint, and provide the card id you received in the create a card response as the {cardId} path parameter.

post

https://api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/{cardId}/activate


1{
2  "_links": {
3    "self": {
4      "href": "https://api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/crd_fa6psq42dcdd6fdn5gifcq1491"
5    },
6    "revoke": {
7      "href": "https://api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/crd_fa6psq42dcdd6fdn5gifcq1491/revoke"
8    },
9    "suspend": {
10      "href": "https://api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/crd_fa6psq42dcdd6fdn5gifcq1491/suspend"
11    }
12  }
13}

Manage cards

Find out how to manage the cards that you've issued to your cardholders.

Manage cardholder transactions

Find out how your cardholder's transactions transition through the various stages of the transaction lifecycle.

Issue a card

Before you begin

How it works

Displaying sensitive card details

Create a card

Information

Create a card in the Dashboard

Create a card using the API

Request example

Response example

Request example

Response example

Retrieve a card

Activate a card

Activate a card in the Dashboard

Activate a card using the API

Response example

Next steps

Manage cards

Manage cardholder transactions