A Guide to Prepaid Virtual Credit Cards for Businesses

Until recently, it’s been a struggle to find catering for virtual and hybrid events, or say thank you with a creative client gift. That’s where smart, prepaid virtual credit cards come to save the day. 

In this guide, we’ll look at what virtual credit cards and prepaid cards are, and how they’re used. We’ll also share some of the great benefits of choosing prepaid virtual credit cards, and some creative ways to use them for business. 

What is a virtual credit card?

A virtual credit card allows you to make virtual payments and online transactions without sharing your original credit card information. Instead of sharing your physical credit card or debit card number, you can choose to make online payments with a virtual number. 

Virtual credit cards are often used for personal finance, but you could also enable them on your business credit card accounts for extra peace of mind. Assign a unique virtual credit card number to each person for travel and expenses, or to purchase tools and apps on monthly subscriptions.

Your virtual credit card may cost an annual fee or monthly fee. Or, your virtual card may offer benefits like cash back, depending on your card issuer. One thing that can be tricky is processing refunds: with one-time use or limited credit card numbers, it’s hard to return funds to the card you used originally. 

What is a prepaid virtual credit card?

Like a virtual credit card, prepaid virtual cards are for digital use only. Instead of using a physical card, cardholders can use their virtual account details to make online purchases. What makes prepaid cards different to standard virtual credit cards is they have to be loaded with a balance before use. 

To help keep prepaid virtual credit cards simple, there’s usually a spending limit and an expiration date. Once you hit that spending limit, there’s no way to access new funds — unlike with a more traditional credit card, where you could go over budget. And once the expiration date passes, you can’t renew your card number for a new one.

While standard debit and credit cards are typically for personal use or corporate cards, virtual prepaid cards tend to be used in a different way. Someone might send a prepaid virtual credit card as a gift, or a reward for customer loyalty. With the help of Hoppier, you can send virtual credit cards to employees, clients, and partners for these reasons and more — which we’ll cover later on. 

Benefits of using prepaid virtual credit cards for business

It’s super easy to buy products and services online now, which also means it’s easier to lose track of what’s being spent and where — especially with multiple corporate credit card accounts. Pair this with an increased focus on providing valuable perks and incentives to your team members, and prepaid virtual credit cards seem like the perfect way to handle both. 

Notable benefits of switching to prepaid virtual credit cards include: 

• Peace of mind. You can’t go over budget with a set spending limit
• Easy to distribute at scale. Set up a program, connect your recipients, and send virtual cards out to large groups in minutes
• Better management of virtual and hybrid event refreshments. Forget the hassle of event logistics and give your attendees more freedom
• Flexibility to add expiration dates. Decide whether to leave the card open, or make it usable only for the duration of an event or experience
• Options to limit the vendors. Create a tailored experience by limiting based on category or individual vendors
• Personalize the experience for recipients. It’s more meaningful than sending funds via PayPal or direct deposit
• Branded payment cards. Add your colors and logos to your Hoppier cards as standard

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Regular credit cards work well for managing general business purchases, but they lack the flexibility to help you deliver in other areas — like incentives, employee appreciation gifts, and corporate gifting. It’s here that prepaid virtual credit cards really shine, giving you an engaging way to connect with both your team members and customers. 

5 engaging ways to use prepaid virtual credit cards in your business

With so much choice out there today, it’s more important than ever to have simple, effective, and engaging ways to attract and retain employees and clients. One of the best ways to make that happen is with the help of prepaid virtual credit cards. 

Let’s explore some of the best ways to use prepaid virtual cards to drive engagement, create a better employee experience, and build better connections with your clients. 

1. Provide refreshments for virtual and hybrid events

Managing catering for virtual and hybrid events isn’t always easy. You could mail out packages to your guests, but that takes time, energy, expense, and a lot of preparation. Plus, it’s not easy to do if your attendees are spread across the world. Prepaid virtual credit cards like Hoppier give you an easy way to simplify event catering and create great experiences for your guests. 

Prepaid cards are ideal for catering virtual and hybrid events for both team members and clients. They’re great for team lunches, webinars and demos, virtual conferences, and hybrid learning experiences. 

With a prepaid card, you can give your guests the ultimate choice on where to pick up their coffee, what to order for lunch, or which snacks to get delivered. They no longer have to make do with a standard package or stopping by a coffee shop — you’ve made the whole process easier and more fun.

2. Send employee appreciation gifts

When someone does great work, it’s only natural to want to say thank you. A great way to do this is by sending employee appreciation gifts. These small (or not so small) gestures are a warm and fuzzy way to express gratitude for your team members’ actions and help drive more employee engagement.

The beauty of sending employee appreciation gifts with prepaid virtual credit cards is that you can create a fun, personalized experience. You’re not limited to emailing the code for a specific retailer gift card, or adding an extra amount to someone’s paycheck — instead you can create a personalized moment of gratitude. 

Use Hoppier to send employee appreciation gifts that go above and beyond the standard thank you note. Customize your virtual card in your brand colors, curate a selection of vendors, and set a balance that reflects the recipient’s contribution. Accompany this with a thoughtfully crafted email message, and you have an impactful employee appreciation gift.

3. Send thoughtful corporate gifts to clients

Prepaid virtual cards aren’t just ideal for sending gifts to your team members, they’re perfect for customer or client gifts too. Think of it as a gift card but better — a simple yet effective way to welcome a new client, express gratitude for their loyalty, or simply surprise them on their birthday.

With a prepaid virtual credit card, you can send a creative corporate gift that’s both personal and easy to send. With a platform like ours there are so many customization options that let you create a tailored virtual gift, without spending hours and all your budget on hand picking an item from an online store. 

4. Motivate your sales team with personalized incentives

Sometimes a little extra incentive can go a long way when it comes to motivating your sales team to get the best results. Experiment with adding a monetary incentive to your sales team in the format of a prepaid virtual credit card they can use for online shopping. 

Set a target, and if your sales team members hit it, they can unlock a new card loaded with a set balance. You can decide whether to leave the vendor list open, or curate it to specific categories — like wellness, entertainment, or restaurants. Pair this with other sales incentives — and a super fun sales kickoff meeting like Fluke — to create a package that really encourages and inspires your sales team to excel. 

5. Promote health and wellbeing with custom wellness programs

Work-life balance isn’t just a phrase, it should be central to your company culture and values. Investing in the health, wellness, and happiness of your team members helps you support them and steer them towards success instead of burnout. Make that investment count by offering prepaid virtual credit cards to spend on wellness perks. 

Create a unique program that’s focused solely on wellness, health, and wellbeing providers and online retailers. Give your team members a virtual card that they can spend with vendors like Fitbit, Classpass, and Spafinder, or encourage them to sign up for a subscription with Calm or Headspace. It’s a smart way to invest in the wellbeing of your employees and show them that you care about what’s happening beyond their KPIs. 

Choose Hoppier as your prepaid virtual credit card provider

Unlike gift cards, Hoppier gives you a way to turn receiving digital funds into an engaging virtual experience for your recipients. You can add your brand logo and colors to the card, add a fun emoji, and craft a thoughtful, funny, or encouraging email to accompany it. 

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You have a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to managing your program. Send out a $35 wellness virtual card for ClassPass to accompany a team-wide fitness challenge, or a $50 card to spend on dinner at Deliveroo or Amazon Express as a thank you for hitting sales targets. Customize your spending balance, expiry date, and list of vendors to match the type of virtual event, reward, or gift. 

Hoppier can help you turn any virtual or hybrid event, experience, or moment into something remarkable. Surprise your event guests with the opportunity to order their event coffee from Starbucks or Tim Horton’s, or send a card to your team members so they can embrace their learning goals with a new audiobook from Audible. The best thing is that Hoppier works worldwide, so you can get everyone involved. 

Create engaging experiences with prepaid virtual credit cards

Virtual credit cards and gift cards give you a way to send someone funds to spend online, but they lack the flexibility and creativity that prepaid cards like Hoppier do. Prepaid virtual cards give you the freedom to create unique, interesting, and engaging programs at scale for team members and clients that still feel personalized. 

With the help of Hoppier, you can change the way you handle gifting and rewards for the better. Explore all the different ways you could use Hoppier to bring your employee appreciation, corporate gifting, and event catering goals to life.