Top virtual cards compared

About Top virtual cards compared

Virtual cards put card details in an app rather than in a wallet, which makes them handy for subscriptions, travel and capping what you can spend from your main account. This ranking covers 56 of them, and every card listed is virtual, so the real choice is what the money costs you and how the account behaves day to day. The trade-off at the centre is a card that costs nothing to hold against a card that gives you more to spend with. Monthly fees run €0 to €0.88, so a monthly charge is the exception here, while currency costs spread much wider, with a median foreign exchange fee of 1.5% and a high of 4%. Those figures only bite when you pay in another currency or load money in. The cards also differ in what they can hold and how easy they are to reach. About 92.3% of this list is built for business users, so cards aimed at companies and sole traders sit next to general ones. Multi-currency and travel features are common, while crypto and custodial balances are narrower. Support matters just as much: a virtual card you cannot get answered on is a poor buy.

How we picked

Every card here is scored on a set of weighted measures, and the weights are published so the order can be checked. Cost carries a weight of 35%, the offer on the card carries 25% and trust carries 40%. Cost looks at the monthly fee, the foreign exchange rate and any top-up charge, because together they decide what a card costs to run over a year. The offer looks at cashback, the features on offer and who the card is built for, so multi-currency, travel and business accounts all count. Trust looks at the card network, how the balance is held and the ways you can reach support, since a virtual card is only useful if you can sort a problem quickly. Figures come from each brand pages: the card and network pages, the pricing and fee pages, the support pages, and the terms that name the legal entity. Each figure is compared across brands only when it describes the same thing, and the cards are then placed in rank order by score. One rule governs the order: partners are listed first, and everything after that follows by score. Plazo ES is a partner of the site, which is why it opens the list, and the rest of the cards are ranked on the score alone.

Our top picks

1. 1. Plati po miru: best for Plati po miru

   Plati po miru is a service at platipomiru.com offering virtual cards for paying for services abroad, in Russian.

   Pros

   • Plati po miru lists Telegram or Max mini-apps and a browser version as card-issuance channels, and says users can issue multiple cards of one or different types.
   • The issuer, country and universal acceptance are not established.

   Cons

   • Copycat addresses make it easy to send details to the wrong place
   • Acceptance still depends on each merchant and country

2. 5. JBJ Production Haiti

   JBJ Production Haiti is in this ranking as a straightforward virtual Mastercard, with a monthly fee of $0, a conversion charge of 0% and support on email, chat and phone. A phone line is rare on cards in this list, at 54.8%, so being able to pick up the phone when a payment is stuck is worth something. The account is built around crypto and virtual card use and serves a single market, which keeps it simple. KeeCash, listed next, shares the same mastercard network and charges $0 a month with a conversion fee of 0%, but adds travel and multi-currency features, so JBJ Production Haiti suits a single market spender and KeeCash suits a traveller.

   • Monthly fee: $0
   • Currency conversion fee: 0%
   • Card type: Virtual

   Pros

   • The currency conversion fee is 0%, so foreign spending is not marked up at the point of conversion.
   • The monthly fee is $0, the same charge as £0 at Starling Personal Account Debit Card and €0 at Bitpanda.
   • Support runs on email, chat and phone, so a phone call is available as well as chat and email.
   • The card is virtual and built for crypto spending, which keeps online payments in one place.

   Cons

   • Currency cover runs to 1 currency, so holding another balance means converting first.
   • The card is virtual, so nothing works when a payment needs a card in hand.
   • Support runs on email, chat and phone only, so there is no listed counter for in person help.

3. 6. Walutomat: best for Highest ATM free allowance

   Walutomat carries the highest ATM free allowance label in this ranking, with free withdrawals of PLN 1 and a card that reaches 22 currencies, the widest reach on the list. It is a business card from Currency One S.A. in PL, running on visa with support on email, phone and help centre. The costs to weigh are the monthly fee of PLN 0 to PLN 2 and a conversion charge of 0.2%, against 0% on conversion for Lynk Visa virtual card higher up. Chipper Cash, listed next, is also on visa with a monthly fee of $0 and support on email, chat and phone, so Walutomat suits anyone holding many currencies or needing cash out, while Chipper Cash keeps a simpler setup.

   • Monthly fee: PLN 0 to PLN 2
   • Currency conversion fee: 0.2%
   • Free ATM withdrawals: PLN 1

   Pros

   • The account holds 22 currencies, so a business that bills in more than one market does not juggle separate providers.
   • A monthly fee of PLN 0 to PLN 2 puts Walutomat at 1 of 419 on monthly fee.
   • Support runs on email, phone and help centre, so a blocked card or a failed payment can be sorted by phone rather than by form.
   • The card runs on visa, and 58.6% of the cards on the site sit on that same network.

   Cons

   • The monthly fee of PLN 0 to PLN 2 is higher than the £0 monthly fee at Wise, Monzo Flex and HSBC UK Classic.
   • Free ATM withdrawals of PLN 1 leave it at 39 of 115, below the site upper quartile of €118.23.
   • Conversion of 0.2% still ranks 109 of 259, a low rate that leaves cheaper options in the field.
   • The card is virtual (virtual) and virtual cards make up 5.3% of the cards here, so you are picking the less common route.

4. 8. KeeCash

   KeeCash is in this ranking for pulling fees, currencies, crypto and support into the same product, which few of the others manage. A monthly fee of $0 and a conversion charge of 0% sit alongside several currencies, travel features and support on email, chat and help centre. It is run by KeeCash SAS (RCS Laval 884034539) in FR and has been trading since 2018, which puts some history behind the name. Top ups are free on the Gold Mastercard and cost a percentage of the amount added on the Black Mastercard and Black Visa. Walutomat, listed next, runs a visa card with a monthly fee of PLN 0 to PLN 2 and more currencies, but takes 0.2% on conversion, so KeeCash comes out ahead for anyone spending abroad.

   • Monthly fee: $0
   • Currency conversion fee: 0%
   • Card type: Virtual

   Pros

   • The monthly fee is $0 and the currency conversion fee is 0%, so a holder pays nothing to keep the account or to convert.
   • Its rank on currency conversion fee is 1 out of 259, and on the monthly fee it is 1 out of 419.
   • The card is virtual on the mastercard network, and the features listed are multi currency, crypto and virtual card.
   • The listed audience is business, so the account is aimed at business money rather than a household budget.
   • Support runs on email, chat and help centre, which covers email, chat, the help centre and a community space.

   Cons

   • Top-ups are free on the Gold Mastercard, but the Black Mastercard and the Black Visa take a percentage of the amount added with a minimum top-up, so frequent top-ups cost more on the Black cards.
   • Support runs on email, chat and help centre only, so a blocked card is handled in writing or in chat rather than by phone.
   • The card is virtual, so anyone who needs a card in hand for cash machines or a till is looking at the wrong account.

5. 10. Privacy.com

   Privacy.com is in this ranking as the business card that pays back on everyday spend, with cashback of 1% and a monthly fee of $0. It is a visa card whose only listed feature is the virtual card itself, aimed at companies and run by Lithic, Inc. (d/b/a Privacy.com) in US since 2014. Funding costs No funding fee (bank account or debit card), which keeps the running cost low. The catch is currency, because conversion runs 0% to 3%, so it suits companies that spend in their home currency and less so those buying in other currencies. Purpl, listed last, is also on visa with a monthly fee of $0, and that cashback is the difference between the two.

   • Monthly fee: $0
   • Currency conversion fee: 0% to 3%
   • Card type: Virtual

   Pros

   • The monthly fee is $0, so a spare card for subscriptions costs nothing to keep open.
   • Loading the balance costs nothing when you top up by bank account or debit card, so the account is cheap to fund.
   • The card is virtual, which suits a business paying for software and advertising online rather than face to face.
   • Payments run on visa, and Visa is the most common network in the field at 58.6%.
   • Spending earns cashback of 1%, and cashback is the most common rewards style in the field at 49.5%.

   Cons

   • Fees on currency conversion run 0% to 3%, while accounts with no foreign fee sit at 0% at the upper quartile, so paying another currency costs more here.
   • The card is virtual, so there is nothing for a cash machine and nothing to hand over in a shop.
   • The account is aimed at business use, so a personal account that doubles as everyday spending is a poor fit.
   • The provider is Lithic, Inc. (d/b/a Privacy.com) in US, so the balance sits with a US company rather than a bank on the high street.

What to look for

The monthly fee

The typical monthly fee in this category is €0, and the top of the range only reaches €0.88, so holding a card for nothing is the norm rather than a bonus. Look here before anything else, because a small monthly charge is still a charge every month, and it is the easiest cost to avoid by picking a different card.

The currency cost

Currency is where these cards differ most. The median is 1.5% and the range runs 0% to 4%. A card that converts for nothing is worth a lot to anyone paying in a currency other than their own, and worth very little to someone who never does, so judge it against your own spending rather than the headline.

How the money is held

A custodial card holds the balance for you, which is simpler but means the provider looks after the funds. Across the site, 75.6% of cards work that way, against 24.4% that leave the funds with you. If you pay into a card often, it is worth being clear about who actually holds the money.

Card network

Visa accounts for 64.3% of this list and Mastercard for 28.6%, with the remainder on other networks. The network rarely changes what you pay, but it decides how widely the card is accepted and which dispute rules apply if a payment goes wrong.

Getting help

A card is only as good as the support behind it. Email and help centres are the most common channels here, at 66.7% and 66.7% of the list, while phone support reaches 54.8%. A card reachable through a single channel leaves you stuck whenever that channel is closed.

What the card is for

Multi-currency support covers 42.3% of these cards and travel use 34.6%, while crypto support appears on 23.1%. Check that the card matches how you actually spend, and whether it is built for businesses, which is the case for 92.3% of the list.

Frequently asked questions

Top virtual cards compared by country

• Australia
• Brazil
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• India
• Ireland
• Italy
• Netherlands
• United Kingdom
• United States

The data behind this ranking

All data and the CSV