Stripe Issuing is our end-to-end platform to quickly create, control, and distribute physical and virtual cards. When you issue a new card, Stripe generates all of the required information and creates a new card for the cardholder. Physical cards can be customized, printed, and shipped directly to you or your cardholders. Virtual cards are immediately available and can be used with digital wallets like Apple Pay.

You can manage cards using the API and in the Dashboard, set authorization controls on a per-card basis to restrict spending (e.g., maximum purchase amount), and dispute purchases. You can leverage the API and develop advanced tooling and functionality, from creating your own spending rules and approving authorizations directly to generating custom reports and statements.

Purchase lifecycle

When an issued card is used to make a purchase, an authorization request is created. If approved, the authorized amount is held in reserve from your account balance. Some merchants can also update an authorization to request an additional amount (e.g., extending a hotel booking or adding a tip).

The merchant then captures (clears) the authorization, at which point a transaction is created and the held funds are deducted from your account. If the merchant does not capture the authorization in a timely manner, it is reversed and the funds released.

If you have reason to question a purchase made with an issued card (e.g., you suspect it to be fraudulent), you can dispute it. The purchase amount is reversed while the dispute process takes place. If the dispute is upheld, this amount is credited back to your account balance.

Next steps

Read on to get started with Issuing!

• Issuing cards
• Card management
• Testing