Virtual cards for business: what they are and when to use them

Most finance teams have dealt with the same problem at some point: someone needs to pay for something, there's no easy way to do it, and the workaround — a personal card, a wire transfer, a request form with a two-week wait — creates more friction than the original spend was worth.

Virtual cards solve a lot of that friction. Here's what they are, how they compare to physical cards, and the situations where they genuinely make sense.

What is a virtual card?

A virtual card is a card number — with an expiry date and security code — that exists digitally rather than as a piece of plastic. It works the same way as a physical card for online and phone payments, but it never needs to be printed, posted, or handed to anyone.

You can generate one instantly, set a spending limit, restrict it to certain types of merchants, and deactivate it the moment it's no longer needed. The card lives in your finance system, not in someone's wallet.

Virtual cards vs. physical corporate cards

Virtual and physical cards aren't competing options. They serve different purposes, and many companies use both.

Physical cards make sense for employees who regularly spend in person for things like travel, client meals, or office supplies picked up on the go. They're durable, accepted everywhere, and practical for day-to-day use.

Virtual cards are better suited to online spend, one-off payments, and situations where you want tighter control from the start. Because they're issued and cancelled digitally, they add a layer of oversight that a physical card can't easily replicate.

When virtual cards make sense

Here are some of the most common use case we see at Perk for virtual cards

SaaS and subscription spend 

This is the clearest use case. Your business probably pays for a dozen or more software tools — project management, design, communication, analytics — and those subscriptions renew monthly or annually, often on different billing cycles.

When a single shared card is used for all of them, cancelling it (because an employee left, or the card expired) can quietly break every subscription attached to it and you only find out when the tools stop working.

A better approach could be to issue a dedicated virtual card for each subscription, or per vendor category. You get a clean record of what's running, what it costs, and who owns it. When a subscription is cancelled, the card can be cancelled too.

Project or campaign spend

Marketing campaigns, product launches, and events all tend to generate a burst of spend over a defined period. A virtual card issued specifically for the project (with a set limit and an expiry date tied to the campaign end) keeps that spending ringfenced from the rest of the business.

It also makes reconciliation significantly easier. All the spend for a given campaign is on one card, with a clear start and end date. No need to filter through a shared card's transaction history to figure out what belongs where.

Employee onboarding and equipment

When a new employee joins, they often need to buy equipment, set up accounts, or cover initial expenses before they're fully set up in your systems. Issuing a virtual card for onboarding spend (again, with a defined limit and a short expiry) gives them what they need without requiring a physical card to be ordered and delivered.

It's also easier to close out. Once the onboarding period is done, the card expires or gets cancelled. There's no physical card to recover or block.

One-off supplier payments

Paying a new supplier for the first time, or settling a one-time invoice, is a common trigger for ad-hoc virtual card use. Rather than sharing a main company card — which stays active and carries risk if the supplier stores the details — you issue a single-use virtual card for that payment.

Once the transaction goes through, the card is done. It can't be charged again, and there's nothing to revoke or monitor.

How to issue and manage virtual cards

The value of virtual cards depends on how easy they are to manage. If issuing one takes a support ticket and a two-day wait, teams will find workarounds. If it takes thirty seconds, they'll use the right tool.

Perk issues virtual cards instantly. Company admins can set a limit, restrict spending to specific merchant categories (or block ATM use entirely), and set an expiry — all in a few clicks. 

Virtual cards sit alongside physical Perk Cards in the same system, so you're not managing two separate platforms. Transactions are categorised automatically and matched to the right cost centre, which means less cleanup at month end.

Virtual cards don't require a fundamental change to how your team works. They slot in alongside existing processes and give you more control over specific types of spend — without the admin overhead of managing physical cards for every purpose.