#matt_76178
fervent needle
Hello
Hmmm no we don't support anything like a "ghost card" like that. You would have to create/manage that piece on your end and then charge cards that you saved in Stripe accordingly.
glad laurel
Stripe doesn't have the ability to generate a virtual credit card?
We are bascially looking to do what this company does, but for multiple people instead of individual use: https://www.kasheesh.co/
fervent needle
Sorry, to clarify, yes you can use Issuing to generate a virtual credit card: https://stripe.com/docs/issuing
But that Issuing card is linked to either your balance or your Connected Account's balance. It doesn't get linked to other credit cards directly
glad laurel
Is there a way for the virtual credit card to be linked to multiple cards?
glad laurel
I thought that Stripe Connect gave you th ability to split expenses
fervent needle
Not "expenses". It gives you the ability to split payments
So yes you could charge these credit cards which would bring that into your balance and then transfer to the Issuing balnce to fund the virtual card (https://stripe.com/docs/issuing/funding/balance?push-pull-preference=balance-transfers)
But like I said you have to manage/setup a bunch of this stuff yourself
We don't provide what you want "out of the box"
glad laurel
Right, we are in the process of hiring a engineering team to build all of this, but we want to make sure you have an API to accommodate this.
fervent needle
It will depend a little bit on the minutiae of exactly what you want, but yes you can accomplish what you want with our API
It just will require a complex integration
glad laurel
So basically a virtual card would be generated, it would be linked to multiple card hodlers. Once that virtual credit card is charged for the payment, it will charge each cardholder a specified amount. You are saying that is possible?
fervent needle
1/ You create a virtual card in Stripe
2/ You track (in some way either via metadata in Stripe or outside of Stripe) which card holders that is associated to and you store those card holder cards in Stripe
3/ You pre-fill the Issuing balance associated to the card so you can charge it and then you correspondingly charge the stored cards
4/ You move the funds from the stored cards to the issuing balance to cover the previously "pre-filled" balance.
It would mostly be something like that
glad laurel
We want the virtual card to be created on our app, where you would "invite" participants to be apart of the credit card. After they accept, the one time card is generated on the platform. Is that possible? See the attached picture for a better visual
fervent needle
Sure, you handle all that stuff other than generating the virtual card and collecting the credit cards that are "associated to it" (which once again you handle) outside of Stripe
Stripe would just create the virtual card here and allow you to charge the credit cards of the folks that are going to use that virtual card
glad laurel
great. thank you! and last couple of questions - if this is all being handled on our app, who is considered the merchant? Would it be us, the app, or still the place that is charging the credit card?
fervent needle
I think the better model here than what I suggested above is going to be to charge your users before they can spend from their virtual card
Then you don't have to front the funds
glad laurel
otherwise we have to front the money?
fervent needle
You would have to front the funds if you attempt to charge the virtual card before you charge the "associated" credit cards
You have to have funds in the Issuing balance to successfully charge the issued virtual card
fervent needle
great. thank you! and last couple of questions - if this is all being handled on...
Not sure what you mean by this exactly?
glad laurel
Not sure what you mean by this exactly?
on each "associated" card - what would show up on their statement? Would it be the merchant (like the restaurant) or would it just say the name of our App?
glad laurel
how come we would have to front the money? when I go to a restaurant and pay with my card, my credit card is not fronting the money, right?
fervent needle
Because funds in Stripe take time to be "available"
Which has to do with regulatory stuff in terms of money movement
Generally in the US this takes 2 days
That shows the "payout timing" which corresponds to how long until funds become available in your balance
When moving funds from your Payment balance to your Issuing balance, you can only use available funds (discussed here: https://stripe.com/docs/issuing/funding/balance?push-pull-preference=balance-transfers)
glad laurel
so in order to not front the money, we would need to charge each associated card before the virtual card (that is connected to each associated account)?
fervent needle
At least 2 days in advance (if you are in the US), yes.
glad laurel
what happens when I have a stripe card and I pay for something? Who is fronting the balance?
fervent needle
When you have a Stripe-issued card?
The merchant that issued you that card ensures there is appropriate balance behind that card
Where that balance came from all depends on their integration
glad laurel
Yes if I have a stripe issued card, who is fronting the money in that scenario?
fervent needle
See above
glad laurel
sorry I am a little confused - If I am a customer who pays for a dinner with a stripe card, I don't understand who / how is verifying that the funds are available
fervent needle
The merchant provides that card to the "customer" here. Stripe just is the infrastructure behind things.
So the most common sceneario is: Business A says "hey I want to provide cards for my employees" so they issue "Stripe cards" to their employees. When their employees charge those cards, the funds come out of the merchant's Stripe account balance (a specific balance that is set aside for this purpose -- their "Issuing" balance).
Have you read https://stripe.com/docs/issuing/how-issuing-works yet?
Also to be really clear about something... I am only talking about what is possible with our API here. You should speak to our Support team (via https://support.stripe.com/contact/login) to ensure your use-case is supported from a regulatory perspective before you go forward with this.
Would hate to see you build something and then find out that it is actually prohibited for some reason
glad laurel
So Business A basically has an account with cash - their "issuing balance" - and once an employee charges a stripe card, the issuing balance fronts this money and then essentially gets reimbursed a 2 days later?
yes of course we have a lawyer looking into this already
fervent needle
the issuing balance fronts this money and then essentially gets reimbursed a 2 days later?
In this case there is no "reimbursement" type thing -- that is only relevant in your use-case where you say you want to fund the balance specifically from your user's credit cards.
How that Issuing balance gets "filled" is all dependent on the merchant. Most merchants would just pull funds from their bank as needed to fund this balance.
glad laurel
Right that makes sense
fervent needle
But really it all depends on the integration/use-case for exactly how that balance gets funded
glad laurel
We would get reimbursed
fervent needle
Yes
marble duneBOT
glad laurel
Can we do something like this?
-
Users allocate the amounts they would like to use on each card for a specific transaction.
-
We would place a hold on each card for the amount you specified with the name of our company
-
We then generate a single-use card for the total amount of your transaction to be used as the payment method at checkout.
-
Once the transaction is settled, it will show as "My Company Name"merchant name' on your card statement.
fervent needle
I don't think 1 -3 are any different from what we have discussed previously right?
For 4: no, you can't change the Statement Descriptor after authorization.
You can dynamically set the Statement Descriptor when you authorize these cards
But even if you capture those funds later (which btw is a good idea to minimize risk -- though there is only a 7 day window in which you can do this) you can't change the Statement Descriptor at that point
glad laurel
so in the moment we authorize the cards we can set the statement descriptor
fervent needle
Yep
glad laurel
and what is the 7 day window exactly?
glad laurel
ok so we would have a 7 day window to authorize with each users credit card, which should be enough time in most cases right?
fervent needle
That 7 day window would allow you to authorize the cards before the virtual card makes the purchase so that you know for-sure you will be reimbursed.
Then if the purchase doesn't actually happen for some reason you don't have to issue refunds, the authorization is just "canceled" essentially
glad laurel
we won't know that far in advance - these are happening when people go out to dinner or buying a movie ticket for example. so let's say a group of people go out to dinner, they enter in their amounts, we put a hold on their card, and then we have to front the money and get reimbursed?
fervent needle
Yeah you are always going to have to front here. But what I'm saying is that there is a chance that when you charge these credit cards the charge is declined by the issuer for some reason
So you have to decide how you want to handle that
But yeah I suppose you won't really be able to have the virtual card holder wait here...
So nvm, no real way to guarantee you get reimbursed up front (unless you do hold funds ahead of time via an authorization of their cards)
glad laurel
in order to guarantee we get reimbursed we can hold the funds in that moment that they enter in the amount they want to charge?
glad laurel
so that takes teh risk out of fronting the money
fervent needle
Right
You just have to "front" for 2 days
But really you are guaranteed to get reimbursed in that case
So for instance if 1 of the cards from the group gets declined then you could indicate that in your app
And ask that group member to update their payment method
Then have them try again (recharge that customer with their new card)
And assuming it is successful, now you let them pay via the Issuing virtual card
glad laurel
but we will know in real time whether or not each users card would be accepted, right?
fervent needle
Yes
glad laurel
got it. and then what happens in the event someone disputes the transaction?
glad laurel
but if we fronted the money and they dispute, are we out of the hole or is it handled between stripe and each users credit card?
fervent needle
You are out that money
You are the merchant here
Stripe is just providing the infrastructure. We do not handle any of the actual interaction between you and your customer
glad laurel
thank you so much for your help. if i have any additoinal questions, can i jsut reply in this thread?
fervent needle
We close threads after a short amount of time. But you can always post in the main channel and someone will be around to help. However, this channel is really for technical questions about the API so you may get encouraged to discuss with our Support team depending on your question -- just a heads up :).
glad laurel
thank you. last question
is there a way to disable / archive the card from being used again (i.e make it for single use transaction)?
fervent needle
Yep you can always inactivate a card whenever you want: https://stripe.com/docs/api/issuing/cards/update#update_issuing_card-status
glad laurel
but can it be done automatically on the app so after the virtual card is charged it can't be charged again
fervent needle
Yes you would handle this programmatically via your backend
(Yes your app would trigger you backend to deactivate the card)
glad laurel
thank you!