How to Choose the Best Virtual Business Credit Card

Traditional corporate credit cards are a staple of business spending, but they often create more challenges than they solve. Between fraud risks and tedious reimbursement processes, accurately tracking expenses can quickly become a burden for your finance team. 

Fortunately, virtual business credit cards provide a secure and efficient alternative. These cards can integrate seamlessly with your payment processing platform and accounts payable solution to streamline expense management and optimize your commercial payment system B2B transactions.

However, not all virtual business credit cards offer the same level of control and flexibility. As you assess your options, it’s important to consider key features such as security measures, spending limits, and compatibility with your existing financial systems. 

What are virtual business credit cards? 

A virtual business credit card is a digital version of a business credit card. Each card has a unique 16-digit number, expiration date, and security code, which businesses can generate instantly through their credit card account.

Unlike physical cards, virtual cards can be created for single use, restricted to specific employees or vendors, and configured with spending limits. This helps prevent unauthorized charges and mitigates the risks of storing and reusing card details.

Many businesses use virtual cards for recurring payments and other B2B transactions due to their enhanced security. Additionally, virtual cards typically integrate with a centralized financial platform, giving finance teams better visibility into spending and cash flow.

What are virtual cards used for? 

While B2B virtual cards are often used for online payments, they serve various business needs. These are common ways companies use virtual cards to simplify and secure their transactions: 

1. Procurement 

Procurement teams can use virtual cards for one-time and recurring payments, such as purchasing office supplies or equipment. This offers greater flexibility and transparency to help manage procurement costs and expense reconciliation. 

2. Online purchases 

Virtual cards are well-suited for e-commerce transactions because they generate randomized credentials. Businesses can make online purchases without exposing primary card details to reduce the risk of payment fraud or unauthorized use.

3. Event planning 

Finance teams can assign virtual cards for specific expenses such as vendor payments, venue rentals, and catering. Predefined spending limits and real-time tracking allow companies to maintain tighter budget controls for each phase of event planning.

4. Vendor payments 

To manage supplier transactions more efficiently, businesses can issue dedicated virtual cards by vendor and designate payment limits. This reduces reliance on cumbersome paper check payments and helps streamline the accounts payable (AP) workflow.  

5. Subscriptions

Businesses can pay for recurring service subscriptions by virtual card to avoid unnecessary charges. Assigned cards can be quickly deactivated once a subscription is no longer needed. 

6. Corporate gifting 

For new corporate gifting opportunities, businesses can use virtual cards to issue digital rewards, bonuses, or holiday gifts to employees, clients, and vendors. 

7. Employee training 

Some businesses use virtual cards to pay for employee training courses or certification programs. Issuing cards for specific employees or departments simplifies cost allocation and ensures training expenses align with corporate budgets.

8. Team travel

Rather than reimburse employees after a trip, many businesses issue virtual cards to cover flights, hotels, and meals. The ability to preset spending limits by team or employee enables finance teams to proactively control travel expenses. 

Are virtual cards safe? 

Yes, virtual cards are safe. In fact, they’re often safer than physical cards since they prevent your actual card details from being exposed, reducing the risk of theft or fraud.

Each virtual card is generated with a unique 16-digit number, expiration date, and security code, so your real card information is never entered or stored. Additionally, you can generate single-use cards that automatically deactivate after a transaction finishes.

These built-in security controls are a key advantage of virtual cards. By setting spending limits restricting usage to specific vendors, businesses can better prevent fraud and internal misuse. 

Nonetheless, it’s important to follow best practices for secure payment management. Finance teams should find a trusted card provider and monitor transactions closely to maintain visibility and control over spending.

Benefits of virtual cards

Virtual cards offer a range of features that improve security and efficiency in B2B transactions and other business payments.

Enhanced security and fraud prevention

Virtual cards are highly secure since each card is generated digitally with unique credentials. Because virtual cards exist only in digital form, they can be instantly deactivated if compromised.

Additionally, you can protect virtual card purchases by restricting cards to specific vendors and issuing single-use cards for high-value or one-time transactions. 

Budget control

Unlike traditional corporate cards, virtual cards have built-in safeguards to prevent overspending. 

For example, a company might issue a virtual card with a $500 limit for a specific software subscription. Setting card restrictions and tracking expenses in real time can help curb unauthorized charges and avoid budget overruns.

Reduced risk

Traditional corporate cards are susceptible to fraud and misuse that can result in financial losses. Virtual cards offer more customization and control by allowing you to restrict usage to approved vendors and instantly revoke access if needed.

Instant card creation

While physical cards need to be printed and shipped, virtual cards can be created and activated in seconds. This enables you to issue secure payment methods without delays for scenarios like last-minute travel or rush-order purchases. 

Easy reconciliation

Since virtual cards are typically linked to a centralized platform, you can track and manage payments seamlessly. Each transaction is automatically logged and categorized to streamline reconciliation and keep financial records up to date. 

Streamlined AP workflow

Virtual cards save you and your vendors time by eliminating bottlenecks in the AP workflow. Rather than relying on inefficient paper-based methods, you can automate payments and monitor transactions in real time to improve payment speed and accuracy. 

How to choose a virtual business credit card

To choose the best virtual business credit card for your needs, start by assessing your company’s payment needs and workflows. 

Here are some important factors to guide your decision:

1. Consider your business spending needs

Before choosing a virtual business credit card, assess your business’s spending habits. For example, if you process a high volume of vendor payments, you may consider cards that integrate directly with your AP platform. Identifying these priorities will help you select a card with the features and infrastructure to match your workflows.

2. Compare security features

Look for key features like single-use card generation, automatic deactivation, and customizable spending limits. These safeguards are essential to mitigate fraud risks and protect your business from unauthorized transactions.

3. Evaluate spending controls and limits

Most virtual cards offer customizable spending controls, including the ability to set limits by employee, vendor, or merchant category. As you compare providers, assess the flexibility and depth of these controls and whether they align with your budgetary policies. 

4. Ensure integration with accounting software

When choosing a virtual business credit card, ensure it integrates seamlessly with your existing accounting software. This connection allows for automatic data syncing, reduces manual entry errors, and accelerates the reconciliation process.

5. Look for real-time transaction monitoring

With real-time transaction monitoring, you can track virtual card activity as it happens to maintain better financial oversight. This allows you to quickly detect any suspicious transactions and ensure all purchases align with company policies.

6. Assess fees and interest rates

Virtual cards often have different fee structures and interest rates depending on their issuer. Review costs such as annual fees, transaction fees, and interest rates to find the best value for your business. Some virtual cards may also offer cash-back and point rewards for specific spending categories, which can help you maximize returns for recurring expenses.

7. Review vendor and merchant acceptance

While virtual cards are suitable for many online and B2B transactions, not all vendors and merchants accept them. Verify that your key suppliers, contractors, and service platforms can process virtual card payments before committing to a card provider. 

8. Ensure compatibility with AP automation solutions

A virtual card solution should integrate seamlessly with your AP automation system to streamline the payment process. This enables finance teams to initiate, approve, and complete payments in a centralized system to minimize manual input. Along with stronger security controls, this helps improve payment speed and accuracy. 

Streamline virtual business card transactions with Priority

Virtual business credit cards can bring greater security, flexibility, and efficiency to your B2B payments. To fully unlock these benefits, you need a solution that seamlessly integrates virtual card payments into your existing financial workflows.

Priority’s integrated payables solution automates virtual card payments, streamlining the entire process from initiation to reconciliation. With our centralized, user-friendly platform, your AP team gains real-time visibility into every transaction, providing greater control over your spending and payment workflows.

Plus, CPX, our commercial payments platform, helps your organization take advantage of early payment discounts and cash-back incentives, turning your accounts payable function into a source of revenue.

Ready to optimize your business spending? Get in touch with Priority today.