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PayVessel virtual card API lets you issue USD virtual cards (Visa and Mastercard) so your customers can pay online at international merchants. You integrate through the PayVessel API using your business API key and secret; PayVessel handles card enrollment, card lifecycle, and wallet debits for funding.

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Virtual cards

PayVessel issues virtual Mastercard and Visa cards in USD that work on all platforms.

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Where can cards be used?

PayVessel virtual USD cards are accepted at merchant sites that accept USD cards: commonly US merchants such as Meta (Facebook), PayPal, Google, Snap Inc., Canva, and many more. Some merchants may decline the card. Restrictions are identified by MCC (Merchant Category Code). The following MCCs are not supported:

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Restricted countries

Cards cannot be used in countries subject to geographic sanctions, including: Algeria, Afghanistan, Belarus, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo (Democratic Republic of the), Congo (Republic of the), Cuba, Gambia, Iran, Iraq, Korea (North), Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Maldives, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Palestine, Russian Federation, Serbia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Togo, Tokelau, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Wallis and Futuna, Yemen, and Zimbabwe. If you encounter acceptance issues, contact support@payvessel.com.

Create a Card

Issue with KYC and prefund

Get all Cards

List cards and status

Fund a Card

Load USD from business wallet

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What you can do

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Customer KYC

The PayVessel API requires full Nigerian KYC on every create request.

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Money movement

Fund and create-time prefund debit your PayVessel business USD wallet (managed wallet). Withdraw and terminate credit it back (withdrawal fee may apply).
PayVessel holds and syncs the spendable balance on the card object after fund, withdraw, and card activity. Do not assume your local ledger matches the API balance without calling Get card.
Merchant charges (AUTHORIZATION, SETTLEMENT, etc.) reduce card balance. PayVessel will charge applicable fees to your business USD wallet.

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Card statuses

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Fees

Funding fee tiers:
  • Below tier threshold: flat fee in USD
  • At or above tier: percentage of fund amount

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Error handling

Responses use { "status": true|false, "message": "...", "data": ... }. Validation errors may include a errors object.

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Security best practices

Do not store card credentials

Never persist card_number, cvv, or expiry in your database, cache, session storage, or mobile secure storage. Store only the PayVessel card_id and non-sensitive metadata (status, masked_pan from list).

Fetch when needed

When your customer must view or use the card, call Get a Card from your backend at that moment. Return credentials to your client over HTTPS only for the active session: do not keep them after the user leaves the screen.

Server-side only

Never call the PayVessel API from a mobile app or browser with api-key / api-secret. All create, fund, and credential retrieval flows must run on your server.

Never log sensitive data

Do not write PAN, CVV, or expiry to application logs, crash reports, analytics, webhooks you forward, or support tickets. Redact these fields in any debug output.

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Guides and API reference

Conceptual guides (how it works, use cases) live under Guides → Issuing. Technical schemas, Try it, and cURL samples live under API reference → Issuing.

Webhooks

Events and transaction types

Create a Card

Guide

Create a Card

API reference

Get a Card

API reference