Issuing with Connect

Learn how to issue cards on connected accounts.

Connect allows you to create separate Stripe accounts for each of your customers, with each account having a separate balance. Cards and cardholders are created under these separate accounts. Platform users can’t fund cards on their connected accounts with the platform’s Issuing Balance, although a platform pays for their connected accounts’ costs, such as card creation.

Create a Connect account

Create a Connect account by following the custom Connect account creation guide, and request the card_issuing, transfers, and card_payments capabilities.

Read more about requesting capabilities.

Terminal

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -d "type"="custom" \
  -d "capabilities[transfers][requested]"="true" \
  -d "capabilities[card_payments][requested]"="true" \
  -d "capabilities[card_issuing][requested]"="true"

Use the API to create Connect accounts for Issuing. While it’s technically possible to create Connect accounts from the dashboard, some Issuing features are not yet accessible from the dashboard.

Required verification information

When you create connected accounts and request capabilities, the response returns a list of requirements. The current requirements to activate the card_issuing capability are:

Legal entity

Field	Parameter	Notes
Legal name	`company.name`
Business address	`company.address.*`
Business type	`business_type`	`company`, `individual`, or `non_profit`
Company tax ID	`company.tax_id`
Merchant category code	`business_profile.mcc`
URL	`business_profile.url`	If the user does not have a URL, you can provide business_profile.product_description instead.
Terms of service	`settings.card_issuing.tos_acceptance.ip` `settings.card_issuing.tos_acceptance.date`	Record the Connected Accounts accepting the Issuing terms of service

Representative & Owner

Required for representatives (relationship.representative) and all beneficial owners that own more than 25% of the company (relationship.owner).

Field	Parameter	Notes
Legal name	`first_name` `last_name`
Date of birth	`dob.day` `dob.month` `dob.year`
Residential address	`address.*`
Tax ID	`id_number`	SSN for US users, or ID number as appropriate for the person’s country
Email	`email`	For representative only.
ID Document Scan	`verification.document`	If all other methods of identification fail, this might help Stripe resolve the review process.

The representative is usually an executive or director, depending on where the account is located. They must be able to certify that the information provided is correct. See also beneficial owner.

For card_payments read about the US-specific requirements.

Terminal

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts/:account_id \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -d "business_type"="company" \
  -d "business_profile[mcc]"=5999 \
  -d "business_profile[url]"="https://www.wesellsocks.com" \
  -d "company[name]"="We Sell Socks, Inc." \
  -d "company[tax_id]"="11-3456789" \
  -d "company[address][line1]"="185 Berry Street" \
  -d "company[address][city]"="San Francisco" \
  -d "company[address][state]"="CA" \
  -d "company[address][postal_code]"=94110 \
  -d "company[address][country]"="US"

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts/:account_id/persons \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -d "first_name"="Joe" \
  -d "last_name"="Smith" \
  -d "dob[day]"=12 \
  -d "dob[month]"=11 \
  -d "dob[year]"=1978 \
  -d "address[line1]"="185 Berry Street" \
  -d "address[city]"="San Francisco" \
  -d "address[state]"="CA" \
  -d "address[postal_code]"=94110 \
  -d "address[country]"="US" \
  -d "id_number"=123456789 \
  -d "email"="joe@wesellsocks.com" \
  -d "relationship[representative]"="true" \
  -d "relationship[owner]"="true" \
  -d "relationship[percent_ownership]"=25.0


curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts/:account_id \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -d "company[owners_provided]"="true"

Making requests on behalf of Connected accounts

After you create the Connect account, all API calls you execute on behalf of this account must have the CONNECTED_ACCOUNT_ID header passed as part of the request.

Add funds

To spend money with issued cards, you must first allocate funds to the Issuing balance on each of your connected accounts. This balance represents pooled funds reserved for Issuing, and is safely separated from your earnings, payouts, and funds from other Stripe products.

Before you can top up a connected account from your user’s bank account, you must first collect and verify their bank account. Stripe provides the option of collection via Stripe.js with verification using microdeposits.

Integrate Plaid into your application.
Call plaidClient.createStripeToken via Plaid’s API to receive a Stripe bank account token (e.g., btok_1FhKKBIzqKMxmFpfAOqBQSrJ).
Create a Source on the connected account. The bank account owner’s information must be included, and should match the connected account’s ownership information. Once your source is created, its status is set to chargeable, and it can be used for top ups.

Terminal

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/sources \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -H "Stripe-Account: {{CONNECTED_STRIPE_ACCOUNT_ID}}" \
  -d "type"="ach_debit" \
  -d "currency"="usd" \
  -d "token"="btok_4XNshPRgmDRCVi" \
  -d "owner[address][line1]"="510 Townsend Street" \
  -d "owner[address][city]"="San Francisco" \
  -d "owner[address][state]"="California" \
  -d "owner[address][country]"="US" \
  -d "owner[email]"="jenny.rosen@example.com" \
  -d "owner[name]"="Jenny Rosen" \
  -d "owner[phone]"=5554443333

Top up connected account

Fund the Issuing balance on your connected account with top-ups by passing in the source that was made and setting the destination_balance to issuing.

Terminal

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/topups \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -H "Stripe-Account: {{CONNECTED_STRIPE_ACCOUNT_ID}}" \
  -d "amount"=2000 \
  -d "currency"="usd" \
  -d "description"="Top-up for week of May 31" \
  -d "destination_balance"="issuing" \
  -d "statement_descriptor"="Top-up" \
  -d "source"="src_18eYalAHEMiOZZp1l9ZTjSU0"