What is the difference between virtual and physical Yordex cards?

Both types of cards offered by Yordex are prepaid and are accepted anywhere that takes VISA. Virtual and physical cards are both topped up from the Yordex master balance, as outlined here.

The main difference is that virtual cards are for one-off purchases, subscriptions and digital spend whilst physical cards are for frequent 'in-person' expenses.

Although it is up to each customer how to use Yordex, we recommend that employees who regularly have expenses (for travel, entertainment etc.) are given physical cards whilst all others use virtual cards for infrequent online spend or subscriptions.

Virtual Cards

Virtual cards are not physical cards and are to be used primarily for online purchases. The card's PAN, expiry and CVV number can all be found within your Yordex account. You can find some further information on how to access this information here.

The card's details will need be entered during checkout for an online purchase, just like if you are making a payment with a bank card. 

Yordex cards which hold USD however can be added to Google and Apple Pay Wallets. Therefore, they can be used for in-person contactless transactions. 

Whereas, in Yordex there are two types of virtual cards: Multi-use and single-use. Please find a break-down of these card types below. 

Virtual Cards: Multi-Use

  • Multi-use virtual cards are expense virtual cards and can be generated by admins only and are assigned to a user.
  • Like physical cards they can be used anywhere online and are only limited by the funds on the card. Topping up multi-use virtual cards is the same process as for physical cards.
  • Each transaction is added to the platform as an expense.
  • These are recommended for frequent online expenses.

Virtual Cards: Single-Use

  • Single-use virtual cards are pre-approved and have to be requested as a purchase. Once the purchase has been approved the card will be generated for the user that requested it.
  • Virtual cards are unique for each transaction, either a one-off or a subscription.
  • For subscriptions, virtual cards are topped up monthly, quarterly or annually by the amount of the subscription price. When the subscription period ends, the card is automatically cancelled. This prevents you from being overcharged.
  • For one-off purchases, the card will only be topped up once by the amount specified in the purchase. Once the payment has been made, the card is cancelled

Physical Cards

These are plastic cards that are sent to your chosen delivery address and are similar to a bank's debit or credit card. It will have the PAN, expiry and CVV numbers printed on both the back and the front of the card. These cards are designed for everyday in-person use, with the PIN and contactless options. This type of card can also be used to make online purchases.

  • The physical Yordex card is topped up by the account admin either manually or automatically.
  • Once the physical card has been topped up, users can choose how to spend its balance. The expenses made on the physical Yordex card will automatically appear in the system where they will go through the approval process
  • After making a payment, the receipt and cost allocation can be added to the expense either on the web based app or platform, as explained here.
  • We do not recommend adding subscriptions to a physical card as this offers less control.