Introduction to Cards
Using Kulipa API, payment cards can be issued for users. When issuing, we refer to the user as the card owner.
There may be a different name on the card itself, and so we refer to the name on the card as the card holder.
There can be virtual and physical cards, and digital (tokenized) cards can be attached to each for mobile wallets such as Apple Pay. See the Cards section to learn about specific types of cards.
Card
A card represents a set of identifiers that can be used for purchases. These identifiers include the PAN ("long number"), expiry date, CVV (3-4 additional digits), and in the case of physical cards, cryptographic data stored on the chip. Cards have different form factors. They can be virtual - stored and displayed in the mobile app only - or they could additionally have a "physical" plastic card with chip and pin, shipped to the user. A card can additionally be tokenized and pushed to Apple/Google pay - we call that a digital card. Furthermore, when a card is deactivated
(for example, lost or expired) and a replacement card is issued, it is operationally a completely separate card
(for example, it will likely have a different CVV and expiry date), and so over time, there will be many cards accumulated under a user account,
some of which are no longer active.
As for the different card types, here are some of the differences between them:
| Aspect | Virtual Cards | Physical Cards | Digital Cards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Requirements to create | KYC'd user | KYC'd user | Existing active virtual or physical card |
| Requires shipping | No | Yes | No |
| Can be suspended/lost/stolen | Yes | Yes | No |
| Can be turned off by owner | Yes | Yes | No |
| Activation method | Active by default | Via API | Active by default |
| Has a user-visible long number | Yes | Yes | No |
| Can be displayed in mobile app | Yes | Yes | No |
| Can be tokenized for a wallet | Yes | Yes | No - it is itself a tokenization |
Card status
A card can have any of the following statuses:
Inactive: The card has been issued but not yet activated by the holder.Active: The card is currently usable.Frozen: The card was temporarily frozen. New transactions are rejected.- Revoked: Any of these four statuses are considered a revoked card:
Cancelled: The card was cancelled and is no longer active.Lost: The card was reported lost (or damaged). No longer usable.Stolen: The card was reported stolen. No longer usable.Expired: The expiration date has passed for this card and it is no longer usable.
Card lifecycle
By default, new physical cards are marked as inactive. Virtual cards are active by default. Digital cards can be created and attached to either a virtual or physical active card, and are
activated as part of pushing them into the mobile wallet.
Info
There are endpoints available to manage the status of a card by activating, blocking, or revoking it at any point.
| User action | Card state (previous) | Card state (next) | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create a physical card | Inactive | Inactive | Goes through shipping states: Issued, Ordered, Shipped, Delivered |
| Activate with code | Inactive | Active | |
| Freeze | Active | Frozen | |
| Unfreeze | Frozen | Active | |
| Revoke | Active/Frozen | Revoked |
A card is bound to the spending controls set and has additional unique properties which include:
- Physical cards have a shipping status.
- A card can be digital when it is pushed to a wallet via a method called "tokenization".
To see all unique fields, see the detailed API spec for cards.