How to start a card issuing business: launch your own branded Visa cards
By SendPay Business · · 2 min read
A card issuing business puts payment cards with its own name and design into customers' hands. You do not need to be a bank: most branded card programmes run on a licensed partner behind the scenes, while you own the brand, the customers and the pricing.
Who does what
- You: the brand, the app, the customers and the fees you charge.
- A licensed issuer or BIN sponsor: holds the card scheme membership and the regulated side.
- A card programme manager or platform: runs the technology that creates, controls and processes the cards.
- The card scheme, such as Visa: the network the card works on.
How you earn
Card businesses typically earn from card fees, monthly plans, currency exchange margins and a share of interchange, the small fee a merchant's side pays on each card payment. Which of these you can use depends on your partners and the rules where you operate.
What it costs on SendPay
The SendPay Card Issuing Platform is free to design and has a one-off build fee only when you publish, to launch your own branded Visa cards. After launch, each virtual card costs 20p and each physical card £4 before shipping, and you set what your customers pay, so the difference is yours. Virtual cards work in Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Before you go live
A licence or a licensed partner is usually needed to issue cards to the public, and the rules differ by country. SendPay introduces licence specialists free of charge, and the accounts and cards behind every platform are powered by licensed partners.
Build it
Create your own financial platform.
Pick a template, name it, brand it, preview every page before you pay. Your brand, your users, your fees.
Build my platform →Questions people ask
What would my own card programme earn?
Work out card costs, card income and first-year profit from your own numbers.
Card issuing profit calculator →Read next
This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. SendPay Business is a technology company, not a bank, and does not take deposits; regulated services on the platforms are provided by licensed partners. PayPal, Patreon and Substack are named as reference points only and are not affiliated with SendPay Business.