Fintech

5 ways virtual debit cards can help you regain control of employee spending

Airwallex, in conjunction with eBroker, is offering $20,000 of foreign exchange for free when you sign up. That’s $0 and 0% margin on your first $20,000 for foreign conversions.
www.airwallex.com/ebroker

For every business owner, setting up a corporate card is a rite of passage and marker of growth. Corporate cards allow you and your teams to make needed purchases on supplies, software subscriptions or freelancers.

You have a breadth of options with corporate credit cards, each with different reward points, perks and fees. However, they can cause problems for business owners looking to stay in control of their team expenses.

This is where virtual debit cards provide a better alternative to corporate credit cards. Leading providers like Airwallex have seen their customers giving up their traditional cards, in favour of virtual cards that empower their teams with better visibility, control and speed.

In fact, by 2025 virtual cards will generate over $5 trillion in transaction value, further accelerated by COVID-19’s from the seamless experience it provides remote teams who can’t share cards or get their IDs verified in a branch.

So, why are business owners making the switch to virtual debit cards as opposed to their credit counterparts?

#1 Easy creation, quick to scale

Physical cards can take days to arrive, thus delaying (or ruining) your opportunity to make a timely purchase. Often requiring an in-person branch visit to verify each additional cardholder.

This isn’t the case with virtual debit cards. Once your business account is set up, multiple cards can be created instantly, giving you and your employees immediate access to a dedicated card.

A virtual debit card’s immediacy gives you greater control over your company’s expenditure. You can easily create, purchase and freeze/cancel individual virtual cards on the spot and without any holdups. This is great for if you want to make a single transaction or if you need to put a sudden hold on company expenditure.

#2 Real-time team spending visibility

Many business owners find great fault in the way corporate credit cards are shared amongst employees. This obscures spending visibility and, in turn, employee accountability. 

With virtual debit cards, each employee can be issued multiple cards. With each card representing a dedicated budget and purpose. This ensures that you have a clear understanding of who is spending what and when, creating an easily trackable expenditure. 

Digital agencies are leading examples of this with dedicated virtual card for each client project to track spend. This saves hours of manual reconciliation and receipt chasing. The team now has real-time visibility on each project’s budget at their fingertips.

#3 Set flexible employee spending caps

If you’re a business owner who is concerned about overspending or having employees take advantage of a corporate credit card, then virtual debit cards are a clever option. Debit cards do not require any personal or company guarantee and only use the funds you actually have, so you’re never in the red.

Virtual debit cards allow business owners to stay in control of employee spending. With flexible daily, monthly or card spend limits that eliminate the risk of budget blowouts.

#4 Enhanced card security

Virtual debit cards, unlike physical cards, are impossible to lose and difficult to steal. Your 16-digit number and CVV is held in your secure online account, making it near-impossible for criminals to steal or make physical copies of your card.

Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about you or your employees sending photos of shared corporate card details or losing physical copies, as was often the case with traditional cards. 

#5 Empower remote employees with multi-currency cards

It’s an even bigger challenge giving your overseas employees a card to complete company transactions. Employees would either have to pay out of their personal pocket first, or incur hefty international transaction fees from using shared corporate credit card details. This back and forth process also causes unnecessary delays in important purchases they need to get the job done properly and on time.

Airwallex, a global FinTech leader, has created a virtual card built for global businesses. Their virtual Visa debit cards are multi-currency, so your remote employees can have a card that pays in the local currency. You also won’t have to worry about any international transaction fees with Airwallex cards, that come with market-leading foreign currency exchange rates.

Perfect for company growth

Business owners spend a lot of time fretting over how to stay in control of team expenditure as their team grows. If you’re a business owner who wants greater control and visibility of your team expenditure, virtual debit cards could be the perfect option.

Airwallex, in conjunction with eBroker, is offering $20,000 of foreign exchange for free when you sign up. That’s $0 and 0% margin on your first $20,000 for foreign conversions.

www.airwallex.com/ebroker

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