Introduction

Just like how line of credit accounts are created from program templates, the cards are created from programs of their own. Card programs let you preset most of the information on a card, which streamlines to process of creating cards and issuing them to borrowers.

This article will explain where cards programs fit in the rest of LoanPro's card and line of credit infrastructure, but if you're totally unfamiliar with these, Intro to Card is probably a good place to start.

Highlights

Card programs are created and saved in Secure Payments, LoanPro's PCI-compliant sister software. Whenever you create a new card, you'll just choose a program, and all of its settings will be copied over. You'll then be able to customize most of those settings if you want to personalize an account for a specific borrower. 

Using programs as templates means that you can design complex, nuanced cards and then launch them at scale with minimal setup on individual accounts. Settings like swipe expiration, swipe restrictions, and any spending limits can be set at the program level and then fine-tuned for individual cards.

A few settings, however, are locked in at the program level:

• Issuing Processor – When you create a card program, you'll select an issuing processor. This is one of the few settings that can't be edited on individual cards; whatever issuer you choose, all the cards made from this program are permanently linked to it. (This makes sense if you think about it—only one company issues an individual card.)
• Swipe Enrichment – Swipes processed with created credit cards will include enriched merchant data, which includes the merchant logo, location, URL, phone number, address, merchant category and more.
• BIN –These bank identification numbers (BIN) are part of the sixteen digits that make up a credit or debit card, and they communicate information about the card and issuer to merchants. Setting them at the program level ensures all the cards created from this template fit within the right range.

This Feature is Not 

Let's clear up some possible misconceptions about card programs in Secure Payments.

• Card programs are not line of credit programs. The two types of template do share a name and some other similarities, but the key distinction is that card programs are used to create cards and line of credit programs are used to create line of credit accounts. A card is the spending mechanism that allows a borrower to make swipes and increase the balance on their line of credit account. 
• Card programs don't have a one-to-one relationship with line of credit programs. If you want, you could create a new card program for each line of credit program you offer. But if the card settings are similar, it might make sense to use one card program for multiple line of credit programs, or vice versa.

What’s Next?

From here, you should also check out our Intro to Card and Intro to Card Issuers articles, which give some context as to how these different pieces fit together. Then, to connect cards back to the ledger, calculations, and robust toolkits in LMS, read Intro to Line of Credit Accounts. Our article on Line of Credit Programs explains the parallel templates used to create accounts in LMS.