Explore important functional concepts regarding cards. In this article you learn about:
Cards are payment instruments that Account Holders use to perform various types of financial transactions. Examples include ATM withdrawals, POS transactions, online purchases, and so on. Fusion provides customization of various card properties like design, payment standards, lifecycle, and more.
Choose from a range of design templates to brand your cards. You can also specify custom colour schemes and designs to reflect corporate identity, occasion, or
target demographic |
.
Static design requirements are communicated to the
embossing vendor |
during the printing phase. For any other complex or dynamic changes, Fusion will facilitate communication between you and the vendor.
Study the following illustration and note the various card-related terminologies used by Fusion card APIs.
Magstripe (magnetic stripe) cards are traditional payment cards with a stripe at the back. The stripe is embedded with identification details like Account Holder’s name, card number and expiration date, and so on. Payment is done by swiping the card and entering the PIN at the merchant’s POS terminal.
EMV stands for Europay, Mastercard, Visa—the three organizations that established the standard. Popularly known as chip cards, EMV cards contain an embedded microchip that offers a more secure payment experience. Information on the card is dynamically encrypted at every usage. Payment is done by inserting the card at the merchant’s POS and entering the PIN.
Contactless payment uses RFID technology for a secure and swift payment experience. Payment is done by tapping the card on the POS terminal, and PIN verification is not required.
Contactless payment is under development and will be released soon. |
Physical cards are standard plastic payment cards. They undergo a fulfilment process consisting of partnerships with
third-party vendors |
to finalize the customization, personalization, and distribution.
Virtual cards are digital cards used for e-commerce and online transactions. They are activated immediately upon issuance. You can enable Account Holders to configure their virtual cards using a mobile/web application.
A hybrid card is a combined offering of physical and virtual card. Account Holders get a digital version of the physical card on a mobile/web application. Physical card can be used for ATM withdrawals and POS transactions, while the virtual card can be used for online transactions.
Offer Account Holders the flexibility to personalize their cards with various attributes like salutation, name, and profile image. You can also add corporate fields like employee ID, department, and company name.
Order non-personalized cards if you don’t want to print any Account Holder information on the card or if all the cards have the same fields. For example, corporates with a large workforce can order cards with the same corporate logo and name on all the cards.
Fusion uses states to notify the operational status of cards. A card’s lifecycle consists of the following states:
Card is fully operational and can be used for all the purposes it is issued for-ATM withdrawals, POS payments, e-commerce transactions, and so on.
Card, and all future transactions on it, are temporarily blocked. If you detect fraudulent transactions on the card, deactivate it to avoid further misuse. Inactive cards can be activated again.
Card, and all future transactions on it, are permanently blocked. Canceled cards cannot be activated again. A new/replacement card must be ordered.
Order card for an Account Holder by creating a card order. A typical card order lifecycle consists of the following steps:
Create a card order with details like Account Holder name, delivery address, card design, tracking ID, and so on. You can create a card order either using the Individual flow or Bulk card flow.
An embossing file containing the order details is shared with the
embossing vendor |
.
Embossing vendor prints the card according to the specifications in the embossing file.
Embossing vendor delivers the card to the
recipient |
.
Account Holder receives the card and activates.
For a detailed explanation on each step, see Create cards and Activate cards.
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