As your business grows, you need a credit card that is flexible and can scale with your business. You already know that Corpay One drives your business forward with one account for fuel cards, business cards and single-use virtual cards. However, what if you need to quickly issue a card to a vendor to keep on file, so they can charge expenses whenever they process an order for your business? This is where Ghost Cards, or multi-use virtual cards, come into play. Corpay One multi-use virtual cards are 'Smart' Ghost Cards that can really streamline payments, while not compromising on spend controls or security.

A Ghost Card is a credit card that you can assign to a specific vendor or department to use whenever they have expenses. Ghost cards are similar to virtual cards in that they do not exist as a physical, plastic card. However, whereas virtual cards are issued for single-use expenses, ghost cards are multi-use and can be used to charge recurring business expenses and improve payment efficiencies.

Unlike traditional credit cards, you can have multiple ghost cards under a single line of credit. This way, you can assign a ghost card to a specific department or vendor to segment and track expenses by ghost card, without the hassle of having to issue individual credit cards or manage multiple statements.

To clearly illustrate how ghost cards, or multi-use virtual cards, are used, imagine the following scenarios.

Scenario 1. Your marketing team is organizing an event for your customers, and you want to enable them to cover the costs relating to the event, such as renting the event space, hiring a caterer and printing invitations. You can issue your team a ghost card for the duration of the event to give any one of your team members purchasing power, all while tracking expenses and keeping event costs within a maximum budget.

Scenario 2. Your company orders office supplies each month from the same vendor. You can issue the vendor a ghost card to keep on file, so they can charge expenses each time an order is placed for office supplies. This eliminates the need for them to invoice you and allows you to automatically track office supply expenses and segment them from your other business expenses.

There are many advantages to using a Smart Ghost Card, or multi-use virtual card, for your business. Some of the top benefits are as follows:

Spend Controls

Issuing a ghost card to your vendor or departments in your company does not give them unlimited purchasing power. Corpay One ghost cards feature the same robust spend controls as our physical and virtual cards, such as setting spend or usage limits. So, you can limit how much can be spent, by whom, and where – ensuring compliance with corporate spending policies and staying within budget.

Spend Tracking

Corpay One ghost cards make it easy to streamline spend tracking by department. Easily view transactions and run reports by ghost card to gain better visibility into costs by department. No more having to sift through receipts or statements to get a clear picture of department spend.

Reduce Reimbursements

Some companies expect employees to make company-related purchases with their own money or credit card, then later reimburse them for out-of-pocket expenses. This practice ties up the employee’s personal funds until they can get reimbursed, which can often take several weeks or even months. Ghost cards remove the employee risk and employer reimbursement burden by enabling employees to charge expenses to an assigned ghost card – eliminating frustration and saving time.

Fraud Protection

When working with a vendor for the first time, you can limit your exposure to fraud by issuing a ghost card that has a separate card number - keeping your primary credit card account information safe and sound. Additionally, you can set usage and spend limits or even restrict merchant codes on the card to ensure the card is only used for authorized expenses.

Here are a few tips and best practices for using ghost cards, or multi-use virtual cards, effectively in your business.

Corpay One is your trusted partner in payments and business expense management, offering one account for fuel cards, business cards, virtual cards, and now – Smart Ghost Cards, or multi-use virtual cards. Whether it is giving your team members the purchasing power they need for critical projects or streamlining payments to the vendors you depend on most, ghost cards can deliver the flexibility and scalability you are looking for to drive your business forward.

Need help with ghost cards, or multi-use virtual cards? Chat with us in-app or email us at support@corpayone.com.