Barclays Introduces Mobile Virtual Card

Need to Know

• Barclaycard Precisionpay Go will let companies issue virtual cards for their employees’ online purchases.
• Employees can request cards to be sent to a mobile phone; approved cards will be issued seconds after being requested.
• 63% of employees are responsible for filing their own expenses, and the Precisionpay Go card will replace this manual process.
• The card will be available to new and existing Precisionpay customers.

Analysis

Barclays is offering a solution to make expense payments more seamless, announcing the Barclaycard Precisionpay Go card, which will let companies issue virtual cards for their employees’ purchases.

The Precisionpay Go card is meant to eliminate the time and manual work of expense-filing: 63% of employees are responsible for filing their own expenses, according to research conducted by Barclaycard. Employees can request cards before they make purchases, and the cards can be sent directly to their mobile phones—a move that reflects the increasingly mobile and remote nature of today’s workforce. The cards, which will be powered by Visa, can be approved and sent to employees within seconds and can be issued for a set amount if the employee knows exactly how much a purchase will cost.

“As the world becomes more digital, so too must payment processes,” Barclaycard Payments president Marc Pettican said in a press release announcing the new card. “The pandemic has reinvented the way businesses operate, with remote working now the norm … Yet, many firms still use outdated systems that rely on paper-based reimbursement which is hugely time-consuming and often frustrating to use too.”

With the Precisionpay Go card, businesses will have instant, accurate visibility over employee expenses, and will be able to add custom data fields to each card and purchase. A mobile app will be used to issue cards and track payments, and employees can also upload digital receipts to the app. And while the digital cards will help save time, they’ll also help companies reduce the environmental impact of issuing physical expense cards to employees. The card is available to both existing Precisionpay customers, and new ones.

With Precisionpay Go, Barclays joins Mastercard in offering digital, one-time-use expense cards for businesses. Mastercard’s virtual card, which it announced in November, functions similarly to Precisionpay Go—it is intended to manage and fund corporate expenses for remote workers, contractors, and even interview candidates—and was also developed in response to the pandemic-led shift to remote work.