Virtual Business Credit Cards: How They Work + Best Options for 2025

Virtual Business Credit Cards Explained: How They Work and Why They Matter

In the age of AI and deepfakes, are you really still swiping a plastic card at checkout?

If so, let’s talk. It’s 2025, and there’s a faster, smarter way to move your money.

If not, then you’re probably already familiar with today’s topic:

Virtual Business Credit Cards

Virtual business credit cards are the modern, digital solution to business expenses. Not only are virtual cards non-physical, meaning you can stop pulling out that nasty wallet you got for high school graduation, they also offer several benefits for business use, including instant card issuance, granular restrictions, and real-time tracking. Not to mention, virtual cards through platforms like Slash means you get connected access to your whole financial suite: sync directly to accounting tools, track bank account fluctations, and access data-driven insights that help pinpoint inefficiencies and lead you to better financial decisions.

What is a Virtual Business Credit Card?

A virtual business credit card works like a traditional physical card because, most basically, it’s useful for making payments. For your business, that means you or your employees can make vendor payments or online purchases that drive your business’s operations and growth.

The most significant difference, however (and you may have already guessed this) is that virtual cards are entirely digital:

By definition, virtual cards don’t exist IRL, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be used like your physical card. With changes in digital infrastructure and more widespread acceptance of digital wallets like Apple Pay or Google Pay, virtual cards are often useful contactless payment options wherever you’ve historically inserted or swiped your card.

Beyond functionality, the cards themselves also share many of the same attributes. With a virtual card, you receive a virtual credit card number, a virtual expiration date, and a virtual CVV. That information can be stored in digital or mobile wallets via your phone or smart device, or input directly into your online checkout UI. The only limitation is whether the merchant accepts contactless payments with major corporate card networks like Visa.

Virtual cards are also encrypted, digital assets, integrated into issuer, bank, or fintech platforms. That makes them extremely powerful financial tools beyond what your physical card can provide. Here’s a deeper dive into the difference:

Virtual vs. Physical cards

Virtual Cards

• Digital, online-only.
• Stores in a digital wallet, mobile wallet, or banking app
• Encrypted. Your card number and information are encrypted, so your information can remain anonymous.
• Free or cheaper to issue. Because they’re virtual numbers, it often doesn’t cost to issue a new card. Be sure to check with your card issuer for exact information.
• Issue hundreds. Virtual cards often don’t have the same issuance restrictions as physical cards. With Slash, issue hundreds, thousands, or more at once, anytime.
• Controls. Set customizable restrictions and controls with a virtual card, including limiting where a card can be used and blocking specific merchants.
• Connectivity. Virtual cards are often directly linked to an online platform or banking site. With Slash, this means your card and transaction history can easily link to accounting, finance analytics, and more.

For companies looking to make large online purchases or desire significant control over company spending, virtual cards are often the better choice over physical cards.

Physical Cards

• Physical, tangible card.
• Store all information in a real wallet, pocket, or keep it loose (not recommended), posing a risk of sensitive data leak when your card is lost or stolen.
• Cost. Physical cards entail materials and manufacturing that, depending on your card issuer, can mean high costs.
• Limited issuance. Besides hindrances by cost, issuing physical cards is often capped at a lower value than virtual card. This is especially the case in comparison to Slash, where virtual card issuance is unlimited.
• Limited Customizations and Controls. Depending on the issuer or platform, there may be fewer customization options with physical cards. This is not always the case, however; Slash lets you customize both physical and virtual cards with the same restrictions.

Physical cards are still most reliable when making in-person transactions, with some stores offering limited to no contactless payment options. However, physical cards are slower to issue and receive, and may pose more risks of data and information being stolen

Both

• Connect to the same payment networks (e.g., Visa, MasterCard)
• Connectivity. While virtual cards, by nature, can offer more robust connectivity to online controls, physical cards can also be connected to your dashboard and accounts for tracking or expense management purposes.
• Controls. Both cards may have customizable spending limits, merchant restrictions, and more, depending on the issuer.
• Slash. Yes, Slash lets you access both physical and virtual cards - so, whether you prefer one in one instance over another doesn’t matter.

You may be thinking: What? I didn’t know virtual cards could do all of that? How is this possible?

Before you stress out,:

How do virtual business credit cards work?

They’re different than physical cards, but behind the scenes, virtual cards follow the same financial functionality as traditional cards… just faster, more secure, and easier to issue. Here’s how:

• Generation: A virtual card can be created instantly through a banking or corporate card platform.
  • With Slash, you can create a single virtual card easily by navigating to Cards and clicking Add; or, you can create multiple cards by either repeating that same process a few times, by uploading a CSV to issue a list of cards automatically, or by connecting to Slash’s API for automated card issuance. There are many options, each faster than waiting for a physical card to arrive in the mail.
• Unique Credentials: Your virtual card is now generated, meaning Slash (or, fine, another issuing platform) just used a cryptographic algorithm to produce a randomized, industry-compliant 16-digit card number, expiration date, and CVV. These credentials can be tokenized or encrypted, meaning the card number itself is separate from your main account number. This process keeps your information private and reduces the risk of fraud or theft.
• Customizable Controls: Through your online dashboard, you can assign granular controls for individual cards or card groups. In Slash, these controls include assigning spending limits or ranges, restrictions by merchant, MCCs, or merchant categories (e.g., restaurants), and restrictions by country (e.g., restrict spending to U.S.-only).
• Digital Usage: Add your virtual cards to digital wallets on mobile devices, like Apple Pay or Google Pay. From there, make online purchases and in-store contactless payments where merchants support.
• Real-Time Tracking: Every transaction now feeds back to your Slash dashboard. This means: not only can you track all your card purchases and expenses in real-time, but also (since your Slash dashboard integrates with QuickBooks and Xero) you can sync every transaction instantly to your accounting software; even before tax season, this means faster invoice reconciliations, accounts payable and receivable management, and more (just ask your accountant).

Virtual cards take traditional cards and extend the functionality to a whole new, digital level. Here are some of the top ways your business can benefit from a virtual business card:

10 Key Benefits of Virtual Business Credit Cards for Businesses

1. Enhanced Security. It takes one good look, a lost card, or a well-timed photo for credit card information to be taken from a physical card. With virtual cards, this isn’t the case, and fraud risk is minimized in several ways:
   1. Encryption: Your virtual card number is often encrypted, tokenized, or algorithmically generated. This means that the people who process your payments won’t have access to your information.
   2. Digital Wallets: Virtual cards hosted in a digital wallet often require account authentication to access (e.g., Face ID when using Apple Pay), so only the owner of the mobile wallet or device can use the card.
   3. Restrictions: Virtual cards let you cut out unauthorized business spend before it even happens. With Slash, you can restrict payments by merchant, category, country, and more, ensuring your employees don’t get too bold with the company cash.
2. Improved Spend Control: Granular, customizable virtual card controls mean you can fine-tune how your business spends by employee, vendor, department, or division. Spending limits, real-time tracking, merchant restrictions, and more mean you or administrators can restrict card usage to your liking.
3. Simplified Expense Management: Automatic expense tracking is significant; it can reduce the need for expense reports, expedite accounting, and improve overall expense management. With Slash’s all-in-one tooling, this is even easier: sync every payment to your accounting system in seconds, view analytics to pinpoint areas of wasteful spending or inefficiencies, and access banking, capital, or crypto with a click. (BTW, traditional tooling only offers a part of this; the rest, you have to find somewhere else.)
4. Faster Access: Besides providing quicker access to all your connected expense tools, virtual cards are straight up easier and faster to use. With Slash, you can create an unlimited number of cards instantly. 🫳🎤
5. Vendor Management: Virtual cards let you create unique cards for spending groups. This has several advantages and use cases, one being for recurring vendor payments. Designated cards for subscriptions mean 1) you can limit accessibility and cut the risk of fraud, and 2) easily manage and cancel services. Other use cases include ensuring vendors don’t overcharge, employees spend correctly, and protecting your finances from fraudulent vendors.
6. Global Controls: Global and cross-border card payments mean foreign transaction fees, different regulators and oversight networks, or language barriers that, frankly, can make knowing what you’re really paying for confusing. With virtual cards, you can restrict spending by country, so you know exactly where your business’s money is being spent.
7. Names: Using a card for an employee’s meals only? Not only can you set restrictions and controls, but you can also name the card (e.g., “Employee Meals” or something more creative), offering extra clarity into how or when spending should take place.
8. Streamlined Accounting: Expense tracking and real-time cash flow visibility can be helpful for your business’s financial teams. Even better, that same expense tracking can sync directly with accounting tools in Slash, so in seconds your card spend can transfer and sync to your income statements and balance sheets.
9. Cost: Physical cards usually cost money to issue, create, and ship to you. Virtual cards can be issued and made available to you for free (with Slash) or at a cheaper rate.
10. Accessibility: At the end of the day, virtual cards mean that your employees, vendors, departments, and more can access cash and drive your business’s growth. Stop waiting and paying a physical card, and issue unlimited virtual cards instantly through your Slash dashboard.

Common use cases for virtual business credit cards

Don’t just take our word for it, here’s how virtual credit cards can work for your business:

• Software Subscriptions
• Marketing Campaigns
• Employee and Contractor Spend
• Vendor Payments
• Real-time Notifications

With unlimited issuance, create any number of dedicated cards for distinct expenses, holistically improving your business’s expense management from tracking to accountability to control.

Hear from real Slash users:

The Top Virtual Business Credit Cards for 2025

With things the way they are (remember AI, deepfakes, extensive contactless payment infrastructure…), more companies than ever are offering virtual cards. Here, we’ve compiled a list of what we think are the Top 3 options out there right now:

Slash Visa® Platinum Card

Type: Corporate Charge Card

The Slash Platinum Card stands out for combining an extensively built financial management and banking platform with access to powerful virtual cards. Powerful because:

• You earn 2% Cashback on eligible spend on your Slash card.
• Instant, unlimited card issuance.
• Set granular restrictions including
  • Block specific Merchants
  • Block specific MCCs
  • Block specific Merchant Categories
  • Block by specific Countries
• Set spend limits including ranges
• Give each card a unique name
• Manage cards by
  • Assign cards by virtual account (customizable account divisions)
  • Assign cards by card groups
• Charge card capabilities, ensuring employees aren’t spending money you don’t have while offering accessible liquidity for recurring payments and large transactions

Through Slash, your virtual card can also access:

• Real-time transaction tracking, including access to spend Analytics with granular growth charts, categorized spending (by merchant, contact, or card group)
• Multi-entity banking means that if you have multiple entities, all of this ^ plus checking, ACH transfers, wire transfers, and over $200 million in FDIC insurance, is available and divisible in one dashboard.
• Slash API, for easier set-up, alerts, and real-time access to expense tracking. Additional API integrations include access to Plaid, QuickBooks, and Xero.
• On that last note - sync your card transaction instantly to popular accounting software, with access to invoicing, bill-pay, expense management, and more.

Get started with a virtual Slash Visa® Platinum Card

& join over 1,000+ businesses

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Capital One Spark 2X Miles for Business Card

Type: Business Credit Card

Capital One Spark Card stands out as a good pick for:

• Travel rewards, including 2X miles on every purchase and conditional bonus miles
• Pre-approval for qualified applicants
• Purchase records syncs to QuickBooks, Quicken, or Excel
• AutoPay setup

Capital One Spark 2X Miles stands out for travel rewards, accounting integrations, and recurring payment controls. However, the card requires a 10 minute application and offers limited controls and no all-in-one financial managamane in comparison to Slash.

American Express Business Platinum Card

Type: Business Credit Card

American Express Platinum Card stands out as a good pick for:

• Travel rewards, including hotel and travel credits
• Flexible spending limits
• Real-time Merchant Category Alerts when employees spend outside merchant types
• Integrations with Bill.com and QuickBooks

American Express Business Platinum Card, similar to Capital One, offers extensive travel rewards and helpful management integrations. However, while Slash allows you to customize controls before spending happens, the American Express Business Platinum Card notifies you only after that spending has occurred.

Smarter Spend Management with Slash

At Slash, our mission is to build better, more accessible, and more modern tools for your business. That includes offering users virtual cards with unlimited, instant card issuance + 2% cashback on eligible spend.

Whether you’re a startup, an enterprise, a sole proprietor, or something else, Slash delivers competitive virtual (and physical) cards alongside a suite of other financial tools. We’re helping over 1,000 businesses access the sort of financial infrastructure they need to scale. Here are the highlights of how we’re doing it:

• Business Banking: checking, ACH transfers, wire transfers, and more with hundreds of millions in FDIC insurance and access to 24/7 real-human customer support.
• Crypto: send and receive USDC, USDT, and USDSL all through Slash.
• Accounting: sync your transactions to QuickBooks and Xero to prepare for tax season, and create expense reports, issue invoices, and more.
• Analytics: real-time data and spend insights on every business transaction through Slash, for in-depth and forward-thinking teams
• and Cards: up to 2% cashback, unlimited virtual cards, expense tracking, and granular controls.

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