Virtual cards can be used in any situation where a physical card is not needed. You can use virtual cards to make purchases or pay bills online, via phone or mail order, or through contactless terminals that leverage virtual wallets. Unlike physical cards, virtual cards cannot be used in point-of-sale terminals for swipe or chip purchases.

Business owners can assign a virtual debit card to each employee instead of offering a physical card, allowing them to track employee-level expenditures and reduce costs. Business owners can also track their own spending by using different virtual card numbers for different merchants or categories. For instance, they may use one virtual card for all food purchases and another for office supplies. A business can also obtain multiple card numbers so that they can use a different card number for each payment to a single supplier, thus reducing exposure and fraud risk.

Consumers can use a virtual card just like a physical card to directly pay vendors for online purchases, or make payments via virtual wallet apps like Apple Pay or Google Pay Send. Like business owners, consumers can track their spending using different virtual debit cards for different merchants or categories. For instance, they may use one card for transportation through Uber or Lyft, and another card for food delivery through DoorDash or Grubhub.