How Sends payment cards work - and why that matters for your money

Most payment cards, whether personal debit cards or business payment cards, work in the same way: every transaction draws money directly from the main account connected to the card. Pay for a coffee, subscribe to a software platform, or hand a company card to an employee, and the funds come straight from the account balance behind it.

That approach is convenient, but it also creates risk. If a card is lost, compromised, or used for an unexpected charge, the exposure may extend far beyond the amount originally intended for spending.

Sends payment cards are designed differently.

A card with its own balance

Sends payment cards — whether for individuals or businesses, virtual or physical — are not directly linked to your main Sends account. Instead, each Sends card has its own GBP or EUR balance, which is separate from your main account balance. This card balance is a virtual balance created solely for the card; it does not allow bank transfers, only card payments. To use your card for purchases, you first top up the card balance using the Sends mobile app.
In practice, this means:

• If your card is used fraudulently, the maximum exposure is limited to whatever you've loaded onto it — not your full account balance.
• No merchant, subscription service, or unexpected charge can reach beyond the card's available funds.
• You remain in control of how much is accessible at any given moment.
• The card balance is a spending balance only — it cannot be used to make bank transfers. It exists solely to manage card payments.

Topping up and withdrawing: free, instant, on your terms

Funding your card is straightforward. Open the Sends mobile app, navigate to your card, and transfer the amount you need from your Sends account. There's no fee for this — it's a free internal transfer between your own balances.

You can also transfer funds between your own Sends cards, which is useful if you hold both a GBP and EUR card and want to consolidate a balance before topping up.

If you decide you don't need the funds on the card, you can withdraw them back to your Sends account at any time — also via the app. The withdrawal goes to your account in the same currency as the card, so a GBP card balance returns to your GBP account, and a EUR card balance returns to your EUR account.

Your card balance is always under your active control — not locked away once loaded.

For individuals: peace of mind without the hassle

If you use your Sends card for everyday spending — whether domestically or abroad — the separate balance model works quietly in your favour.

Online purchases are one area where this matters most. Saving card details with a merchant or subscription service creates a degree of risk. If that merchant is compromised, or a subscription charges more than you expected, the exposure is limited to the card's loaded balance rather than your full Sends account.

For travel, the logic is equally straightforward: load a budget in GBP or EUR before you go, spend with confidence, and keep the rest of your funds separate and secure. Any unspent balance can be withdrawn back to your account the moment you return.

Business payment cards with built-in spending control

This is where the design becomes particularly useful.

Corporate payment cards have traditionally presented a difficult trade-off. Give employees a card linked to the company account, and you've extended them access to funds well beyond what they need. Rely on expense claims instead, and you create administrative overhead, delays, and a dependence on staff using their own money first.

Sends corporate cards offer a third option.

The finance team stays in control

When you issue a Sends corporate card and fund it for a specific purpose, you decide how much goes onto it. If someone is attending a conference and needs £500 for travel and meals, that's what you load. If a project requires a supplier payment of £2,000, that's the transfer you make.

The card can spend up to that agreed amount — and only that amount. The main company account is entirely untouched. There is no credit extended, no overdraft risk, and no situation in which a cardholder could spend more than the finance team has sanctioned.

Real-world benefits for businesses

• Departmental budgets: Load cards by team or function, keeping marketing spend, operational costs, and travel budgets clearly separated.
• Project-specific funding: Assign a card with a defined budget for a given project. When the balance runs out, it runs out — no overruns.
• Temporary or contract staff: Issue a virtual payment card for the duration of an engagement without granting access to broader company funds.
• Immediate top-ups: If additional spend is genuinely needed and approved, funds can be added to the card in seconds via the app.
• Simple reconciliation: Every transaction is traceable to the card it was made on, with the balance capped at what was loaded. No receipts chased after the fact.

Security built into the card structure

Many approaches to payment security rely on rules: policies about what staff can spend, approval workflows for expenses, manual checks after the fact. These matter, but they all assume the underlying account access is already extended.

Sends cards take a different approach. The security isn't a layer on top of a standard card — it's built into how the card works. Because the card only has access to its own loaded balance, the risk is structurally contained.

This is sometimes described as the principle of least privilege, borrowed from information security: give any access point only the minimum level of access it needs to function. Applied to payment cards, it means that a card used for a specific purpose holds only the funds required for that purpose.

No policy document changes this. Charges cannot exceed the available card balance. The card simply cannot spend money that isn't on it.

Common questions

Is this the same as a prepaid card?

The structure is similar — funds are loaded before spending rather than drawn from a credit line or live account balance. The distinction with Sends is that transfers between your account and your card are free and instant, managed entirely within the app, with no third-party top-up process or additional fees.

What if I need to spend more than I've loaded?

Open the Sends app and transfer more funds from your account to the card. It takes a matter of seconds. For business cards, this would typically go through whichever internal approval process your finance team uses for additional spend.

How many cards can I have?

Individual customers can hold up to two cards; corporate customers can hold up to three. Each card is independent, with its own balance, and can be in GBP or EUR depending on your needs.

Can I switch between virtual and physical?

No — the card type is selected at the point of issuance and cannot be changed afterwards. If you need both a virtual and a physical card, you can request each separately, up to the card limit for your account type.

What happens to unspent funds?

Any balance remaining on a card stays there until you choose to withdraw it. Withdrawals are made via the app and go to your Sends account in the same currency as the card — GBP card balance to your GBP account, EUR card balance to your EUR account.

Can I add my Sends card to Apple Pay or Google Pay?

Yes — individual cardholders can add their Sends card to Apple Wallet and Google Pay for contactless payments. Digital wallet support for corporate cards is in development and will be available soon.

Why separate card balances matter

For most people, payment cards are the most frequently used financial tool they own. The design decisions behind them — which accounts they connect to, how much they can access, who controls the limits — have real consequences.

Sends cards are built around the idea that control and convenience should coexist. You shouldn't have to choose between easy access to funds and the security of knowing your main account is protected. For businesses, you shouldn't have to choose between equipping your team and maintaining proper financial oversight.

The separate card balance makes both possible, simultaneously, at no additional cost.

Ready to get started?

Open your Sends account and request your first card in minutes — virtual payment cards are issued instantly; physical cards arrive within three to five working days. Whether you're managing personal spending abroad or building a spend management system for your team, the same principle applies: your money, precisely where you choose to put it