Get the Most Out of Virtual Cards for Business
Many businesses use credit cards to ease commercial transactions since they are quicker and simpler to use than real cash or cheques. That’s true. However, disclosing the company’s credit card information online or to suppliers may attract theft. You hardly want such a situation to happen right? Using company virtual cards is an alternate solution to this problem.
The trick is that virtual cards have a temporary 16-digit number, a CVC, and an expiration date. They are impossible to trace to your bank account and allow you to establish a maximum spending limit. All of these features help to reduce the harm that fraudsters might do to your company. Although all these benefits may sound rather self-explanatory, there are still many important details to explore. In this post, we’ll look at the main advantages of virtual cards, what a virtual card is, and the most popular use cases for them. So keep reading and be inspired.
Benefits of Using Virtual Credit Cards
There are many good things about using virtual credit cards for business. Regardless of the niche your business operates in, there are many ways you can benefit from using a virtual credit card.
-
Increase Financial Control
With virtual credit cards, you get greater control over your corporate finances. Maximum payment limitations, automatic expiry dates, and vendor (or category) restrictions provide you more control over your business’s costs and spending. This is particularly critical for e-commerce businesses and tiny startups that may not have a lot of resources.
-
Automate the Processes
The expense reporting procedure may be too difficult. As a result, many employees may procrastinate until the deadline for the report to be sent. Manually categorizing each item is not only time-consuming but also error-prone. This is where virtual cards can come to the rescue. They allow for automatic cost categorization. For example, you can issue LinkPay virtual credit card for Bing ads, Upwork payments, or recurring subscription payments. These cards also offer automatic reporting, which significantly simplifies the whole process.
-
Reduce the Risk of Fraud
A virtual card may help safeguard your company from fraudulent transactions and other security threats. You may protect your company’s information by activating or deactivating an instant virtual credit card. What is more, merchant locks can be used to prevent unauthorized access.
-
Make Purchases for Employees Easier
Employees using virtual cards may make purchases online or in person. They will be permitted to spend up to a predetermined amount every month. This feature simplifies purchases for both workers and supervisors by eliminating the need for time-consuming administrative tasks, such as submitting a budget request, having it approved, distributing funds, and so on. Additionally, virtual credit cards allow for significantly minimizing fees.
-
Create Single or Multi-Use Cards
As a rule, a company manages a variety of payable accounts. Some payments are only due once, while others must be made on a regular basis. Physical cards cannot be issued for a single use. Blocking a card after usage might take weeks after submitting a request. Luckily, there is no such issue with a virtual credit card. You can use a virtual credit card to purchase Internet ads and thus promote your business online.
-
Simplify Vendor Management
Your card management software allows you to generate virtual payment cards depending on the number of merchants you have. This allows you to examine the overall number of suppliers in your company’s various divisions as well as the amount of money spent on them. This access to accounts payable is especially useful when working on spending analytics and insights.
Virtual Business Credit Card Use Cases
Companies use virtual cards to pay suppliers, enable workers, and have greater control over their finances. Here are some of the most popular industries and business types that will definitely benefit from employing virtual cards:
- Insurance companies — A health insurance company can use a virtual credit card to cover primary care claims. This avoids the usage of checks and the problems that come with them;
- Travel agents — An online travel agency (OTA) may use virtual cards to associate each booking with a unique account number. This makes it easy to reconcile various trips, payments, and customers at the end of the month.
- IT companies and businesses — IT professionals use virtual cards to buy software, subscriptions, and tools. This allows for more secure transactions and better monitoring of IT expenditures.
General Use Cases
Regardless of the niche your company operates in, there are general scenarios of using virtual credit cards. Among the most common use cases are as follows:
- Contractor payments — Companies (such as those in construction and development) use virtual credit cards to pay to freelancers and independent contractors for project-related costs. They only need to specify expiry dates and expenditure restrictions that correspond to project durations.
- Online purchases — Virtual cards are often used for online transactions. They are often safer than actual cards and may be issued for one-time use, reducing the possibility of abuse or fraud.
- Recurring payments — Virtual cards are an ideal alternative for regular payments. Virtual credit cards may be used to pay for subscriptions, office supplies, and anything else that a company requires on a monthly or quarterly basis.
- Supplier payments — A company can employ virtual cards for business to improve its accounts payable procedures, lowering the time required for invoice administration and payment processing. This helps to promote efficiency, allowing a company to cultivate supplier relationships and take advantage of early payment incentives.
- Employee spending — A corporation may issue a virtual credit card to team members for particular business transactions. This may apply to certain positions or duties, such as sales, marketing, or office administration. You can even label a card for either single or numerous usage.
- Monitor subscriptions and campaigns — Virtual cards eliminate the trouble of coordinating various payments for many subscriptions by filling the card with money that will automatically pay for each subscription service.
- Issue a corporate travel card for workers — You can use a virtual debit card to purchase airline tickets, hotels, and even transportation for corporate travel. Therefore, corporate representatives and executives can be more productive on business trips without worrying about running out of corporate cash or using their own money.
Virtual Credit Cards: The Next Big Thing for Companies
The usage of physical cards is still big today. However, virtual credit cards are becoming the key high-tech trend for small businesses, particularly for businesses that often deal with vendors and suppliers. And there are many good reasons for that — from increased financial control to simplified vendor management and process automation.
