Virtual card payments: a guide for suppliers

Virtual card payments are business-to-business payments made with a card number that exists only for that payment, or only for that supplier. A buyer's accounts payable team or software creates the number, sends it to you by email or through a supplier portal, and you charge it like any card taken over the phone. You get paid fast, with no check in the mail. In return, you pay card fees on every invoice, usually at commercial card rates.

That trade-off is the whole decision. Below, we cover how virtual cards work on the buyer's side, what lands in your inbox, how to process one without a decline, what it costs on real invoice sizes, and how to decide whether to take them.

How do virtual card payments work?

A virtual card is a commercial card account without the plastic. The buyer's bank or payables platform creates a card number for a specific payment, puts limits on it, and sends it to the supplier.

Visa's developer documentation for its B2B Virtual Account Payment Method lays out the mechanics. By default, each payment a buyer submits to a supplier creates a unique virtual account, which Visa calls a single use account. Buyers can attach controls, such as merchant category codes and amounts, and Visa says that greatly reduces fraud risk. The same documentation covers two ways the money can move: supplier-initiated payments, where you charge the card, and buyer-initiated payments, where the payment is pushed to you.

A typical supplier-initiated payment goes like this:

1. Your customer approves your invoice in their payables system.
2. Their system or bank issues a card number for that payment, often with a limit equal to the invoice total.
3. You receive the card details and the remittance (which invoices the payment covers) by email or in a supplier portal.
4. You charge the card for the exact amount.
5. The money reaches your bank account on your processor's normal funding schedule.
6. Your customer's company pays its card bill later, under its own agreement with its bank.

Buyers like this setup for obvious reasons: no more check runs, a separate number with its own limits for every payment, and data their accounting team can match. For you, the important detail is simpler. The buyer picked a payment method, and you're the one paying to accept it.

What does a supplier receive with a virtual card payment?

Usually an email or portal notice with the card number, expiration date, security code, the amount authorized, and the invoice numbers being paid. Some include a window of dates when the card works. The format depends on the buyer's bank or payables provider, so read the first one from each customer slowly.

Treat those emails like cash. Anyone who reads one sees a working card number. A few rules keep that contained:

• Open card details only from the portal or from a sender you've verified, never from an unexpected link.
• Limit who on your team can see virtual card emails.
• Don't forward them, print them, or save them to a shared folder.
• Delete or securely archive them once the payment clears. The PCI Security Standards Council says PCI DSS prohibits keeping card verification codes after authorization, even encrypted.

What is straight-through processing?

Some programs skip the email entirely. In a buyer-initiated payment, the buyer's side pushes the payment to your processor and nobody keys in a card. Visa's documentation says suppliers receive payments faster through straight-through processing, and that supplier remittances can be generated and sent automatically. Getting set up for it usually means enrolling with the buyer's program, so ask your processor whether your account can receive these payments and how they're priced before you agree.

How do you process a virtual card payment?

Use a virtual terminal, the secure web page where you key in card payments, and handle each virtual card the way you'd handle a card read to you over the phone. Our virtual terminal takes phone and email payments and also sends invoices and payment links.

1. Check the amount. Charge exactly what the remittance says. Controls on the card can reject anything else.
2. Enter the card number, expiration date, and security code exactly as sent.
3. Add the billing ZIP code if the remittance includes one, so address verification can run.
4. Put the invoice numbers in the description field, so the deposit is easy to match later.
5. Submit and wait for the approval code.
6. Mark the invoices paid in your accounting system, with the approval code and the date.
7. Send a receipt to the customer's accounts payable contact.
8. Secure or delete the card details.

Don't split one virtual card across several charges unless the buyer tells you to. A single-use account is built for one payment, and you may not get a second try.

Why do virtual card payments get declined?

The usual suspects:

• The amount doesn't match the limit on the card.
• The card is outside the dates it's valid for.
• A single-use card has already been charged.
• A category control blocks your business. Visa lists merchant category codes among the controls a buyer can set, and your code is the four-digit number your processor assigned to your business, so a mismatch can block an otherwise good payment.
• A typo in the card number or expiration date.

If a payment declines, call the customer's accounts payable contact before you try again. Running the same card over and over rarely fixes a control problem.

How much do virtual card payments cost suppliers?

The same as any card payment taken without the card present: interchange, network fees, and your processor's markup. Virtual cards are commercial cards, and you key them in, so unless a payment qualifies for a better program, it lands in one of the pricier categories.

Here's what Visa's interchange schedule effective April 18, 2026 shows for corporate and purchasing cards, on two invoice sizes:

Notice the crossover. The Large Ticket program's $35 fixed fee makes it more expensive than Product 3 below roughly $7,756, and cheaper above it. Which program a payment qualifies for depends on the card and on what your processor and gateway send with it, so ask before you assume. Product 3 needs line-item data, which we explain in Level 3 credit card processing.

Now a full month. Say a packaging supplier in Dallas has a customer that moves $40,000 a month of invoices from ACH to virtual cards, in eight payments. At 2.70% + $0.10, that's $1,080.80 in interchange a month, or about $12,970 a year, before the processor's markup. If that account runs on thin margins, it's a real cut.

How you're priced changes the picture. On interchange-plus, you see each commercial category on your statement and pay its true cost. On a flat rate, a commercial card costs you the same as any other card, which works in your favor on an expensive commercial card and against you on everything else. Our comparison of interchange-plus and flat-rate pricing walks through that math, and our credit card processing fees page explains each line.

Should you accept virtual card payments?

Usually yes on small and mid-size invoices, and it's worth negotiating on big ones. A card fee that replaces a 45-day wait for a check can be money well spent. The same fee replacing an ACH payment you were already getting on time is money lost.

Before you agree to a customer's virtual card program, ask them:

1. Is there an invoice amount above which they'll keep paying by ACH?
2. Do they pay suppliers who take virtual cards on a different schedule than suppliers paid by ACH?
3. Will each payment come with remittance showing which invoices it covers?
4. Can they send line-item data with each payment?
5. Does their program allow straight-through payments, so nobody keys in card numbers?

Can you surcharge a virtual card payment?

Sometimes, and only on credit. Under Visa's rules, the surcharge can't exceed your merchant discount rate or 3%, whichever is lower, and your acquirer needs 30 days' notice before you start (Visa). When the virtual card runs on Mastercard credit, the cap is the lesser of your average effective merchant discount rate or 4% (Mastercard). Neither allows a surcharge on debit or prepaid cards. If a virtual card turns out to be a debit or prepaid product, it can't carry a surcharge, so your setup has to read the card type rather than assume it.

State law matters too. Maine is one state that prohibits surcharging credit and debit cards (Maine Legislature). Anywhere else, say at a supplier in Atlanta, check our guide to surcharging rules by state and ask how your state's rule applies to sales between businesses. Then read your agreement with the customer. Our surcharging program handles the compliance, disclosure, and setup.

How do you reconcile virtual card payments?

Reconciliation is where virtual cards save or cost you the most time. One card payment can cover several invoices, and the deposit that reaches your bank is a batch total, not one line per invoice. A simple routine keeps it straight:

• Record the invoice numbers from the remittance against the approval code.
• Put those invoice numbers in the description of the card payment.
• Match each deposit to the payments in that batch, by approval code and amount.
• Track card fees by customer, so you know what each account really costs to serve.
• If you owe a refund, agree with the buyer how to issue it. A single-use account may already be closed.

If you're juggling virtual cards next to ACH and checks, our guide to B2B payments compares all the methods side by side.

Common mistakes with virtual card payments

• Charging a different amount than the remittance shows, then fighting the decline.
• Leaving virtual card emails in a shared inbox for anyone to read.
• Keeping the security code in a spreadsheet "for next time."
• Saying yes to a customer's program without asking whether ACH stays available for large invoices.
• Adding a surcharge without checking whether the card is credit, debit, or prepaid.
• Never looking at which interchange categories your commercial card payments land in.

Next step

Before you sign up for a customer's virtual card program, or push back on one, find out what your commercial card payments cost you today. Send us a recent statement for a free statement review, and we'll show which commercial categories your payments land in and what they cost per invoice. If you sell to other businesses anywhere in the US, you can also contact us about taking virtual card payments through our virtual terminal, or read our page on B2B payment processing.