5 Awesome Benefits of using Virtual Payment Cards

With more and more businesses going digital, virtual payment cards are becoming the go-to business payment solution plan for most businesses online and offline.

Just from 2010-2017, there has been an increase of 85 million active virtual payment card users in Europe.

And it’s not without reason why both the seller and customer, especially if you’re a B2B business dealing with paying international suppliers or buyers, it’s all done online so you don’t need to waste going out of your way to line up at a physical bank.

Because the time is simply worth focusing on growing your business. 

5 Benefits of using Virtual Payment Cards

1. More Security
2. E-commerce Convenience
3. Lower Costs
4. Track Spending
5. Easier Card Management

Before getting on to all the amazing benefits of how virtual payment cards can benefit your business, let’s start off by understanding what a virtual payment card is.

Virtual vs Physical Cards?

Essentially, a virtual payment card allows you to perform all the functions that a traditional plastic card does, except for the better.

Everything is done online so it really involves a few taps for you to add money, do transactions, paying suppliers/buyers, all within a few seconds.

So you’re not restrained to a specific location or wasting your precious time at a bank waiting for the cumbersome paperwork to be done. Because come on, who got time for that? 

Typically, the virtual payment card contains a 16 digit number which is specifically designed for single-use only in between the payer and the payee.

Therefore, it is highly secure as it is end-to-end protection for both the business and the buyer compared to the traditional ACH or cheque payment which has more security pitfalls because you don’t need to expose your bank information in order to conduct the transaction. 

1. More Security 

With the designated security pitfalls traditional bank account cards have physical cards become much more a target for payment fraud.

The reason why virtual cards are considered much more secure and safe is that you can pre-set a specific maximum spending limit you want at any time.

You also have the option to terminate the account anytime you want with just a click of a button in case of any data leakage that you worry about. 

During each transaction, there’s a one-time use bank number for you to perform the payment instead of using the same given set of bank numbers to third parties all the time.

Contrary to checks or ACH payments, this can drastically improve the data security of your bank account details and protect your privacy even during transactions. 

With virtual cards, it is simply impossible for account theft on e-commerce fraud because criminals cannot have access to your bank simply by obtaining your physical card.

So you have absolutely no worries about losing your card and getting your important bank details stolen by criminals.

2. Convenience for E-commerce

Unlike any other traditional banks that have fixed working hours, virtual banks work 24/7 around the clock, just so they can be on standby for your international business whenever you need. 

What’s better is that you don’t even need to waste the time to go to a physical branch, instead, all you need is just a few taps on a phone, a laptop, or an iPad, and you can easily do the transactions online to make your business as efficient as you can get. 

And you can also skip the whatever 7 or 14 business days to get your account started. Since everything is run by computers.

So forget all the paperwork or manual mistakes.

Embrace the streamlined accounts that got you all covered.

The single-issued also allows your A/P departments to focus on your more important financial matters, letting you focus on your business. 

3. Low Cost

A lot of virtual banks tend to have much fewer fees required for customers.

With every dollar spent, you can actually earn cash rebates for just paying your suppliers or buyers. 

But virtual cards, on the other hand, cost you absolutely zero costs.

Since everything is run online, so the operating costs can be cut down by the virtual bank and in turn, they will charge less on the customers. So you can literally sit back, and earn money.

Who doesn’t want that?

Not only that, but you can also earn cashback along with other promotional offers.

If we look at checks, most of the traditional banks would charge users according to their business size, which can range from $3.00 to $25.00. 

4. Track Cash Flow Anywhere, Anytime 

When you’re dealing with payments with vendors or suppliers, the cash flow can get a little messy when you’re trying to make the payments before a specific time period.

But with virtual cards, you get to keep track of the funds available with the data provided by the system.

So you can have better internal transparency and efficiency when it comes to the payment process. 

There’s also extra functions like assigning virtual cards to certain people like vendors or suppliers of your choice and keeping every source of the transactions tidy and clean.

Just so your A/P department doesn't need to keep track of all the receipts or chasing expenses from others, making it all easy and clean.

5. Manage Card Easily

Compared to traditional cards, there’s relatively more control and flexibility for virtual card users.

Instead of having a given fixed spending limit created by the bank, users can actually customize their own spending limits for their accounts or when to freeze/close their accounts. 

Also, since these single-issued virtual cards can be assigned to a specific person for a specific amount of money selected by you, there’s more control as to whether to spend how much.

And therefore cutting down the process for reconciliation for the A/P department. 

Looking for a new way to make payments for your business?

Why not pair your virtual payment card desires with a virtual business account?