Creating a Relay debit card

Relay offers both virtual and physical Visa® debit or credit cards to help you manage your business spending with clarity and control. This article will walk through how to create physical and virtual Relay debit cards, including temporary virtual cards (expiring virtual cards) and shared cards.

You can issue as many physical and virtual debit cards as you need. The number of cards scales with your employees and accounts.

Please note: Relay debit cards will only pull available funds from their source account, and will only carry out transactions if there are available funds in the account.

You can set up a backup account for each of your debit cards to sweep funds from if the source account has insufficient funds.

What You Can Do with Relay Debit Cards

With Relay debit cards, you can:

• Issue as many physical and virtual debit cards as you need.
• Assign cards to team members with customized permissions
• Set daily or per-transaction spending limits
• Freeze, terminate, or replace cards instantly
• Use virtual cards online immediately—no waiting for delivery

Creating a Card

You can create a new card from the Cards tab in your Relay dashboard. The steps below cover physical cards, virtual cards, and temporary virtual cards (expiring virtual cards).

Tip: Virtual cards are available for use right away. Physical cards will need to be activated once received.

Card Issuing Rules by Business Type

Sole Proprietorships

• Debit cards can only be issued in the legal name of the business owner.

• Cards cannot be created under any DBA (Doing Business As) associated with the sole proprietorship.

• This also applies to cards issued to additional cardholders—all cards will display the business owner’s legal name.

LLCs, General Partnerships, and Corporations

• Debit cards can be issued in either:

  • The official business name, or

  • The individual cardholder’s name (applies to both the business owner and additional cardholders).

Shipping Options for Physical Debit Cards

Relay offers two delivery options for physical debit cards:

Note: Expedited shipping is only available for new physical cards created after onboarding. It is not available for cards issued during the onboarding process.

Replacing or Reissuing a Card

Need a new card due to damage, loss, or fraud? You can reissue a card from the Cards tab:

1. Select the card you want to replace.
2. Choose Freeze or Terminate, depending on the situation.
3. Select Replace Card to begin the reissue process.

You'll be able to choose a shipping method if reissuing a physical card.

Activating a Physical Card

Once you receive your physical card:

1. Go to the Cards section of your dashboard.
2. Select the card.
3. Click Activate Card and follow the prompts.

You'll need the 3-digit CVV on the back of the card to activate it.

Managing Card Controls

Relay gives you full control over each card:

• Freeze or terminate cards at any time
• Change the card nickname or spending limit
• Set which accounts are connected to each card
• Review transactions linked to the card

Customize and Design Your Card

Relay allows you to customize the design of your cards, giving your team a visual way to align each card with its purpose. When creating a customizable card, you’ll be able to:

• Choose a color: Select from 6 vibrant card colors

• Pick a spend category illustration: Match the card to its use case (e.g., Marketing & Advertising, Software & Subscriptions)

• Mix and match styles: With 6 colors and 6 illustrations, you can create 30+ unique card designs—perfect for organizing team or department-level spending

This customization helps your team stay organized by making it easier to visually identify the purpose of each card.

Please Note: Physical Credit Cards cannot currently be customized.

Card Expiration and Replacement

All Relay cards—both virtual and physical—have an expiry date printed in MM/YY format.

Virtual cards

When a virtual card expires, a replacement is not created automatically. You’ll need to manually create a new virtual card from your dashboard. About one month before your current virtual card expires, you’ll receive an in-app or email notification reminding you to replace it.

Physical cards

One month before your physical card expires, a new card will be issued and mailed to your business address on file. Once the new card arrives, you’ll need to activate it manually from your Relay dashboard. The old card will automatically deactivate after its expiry date.

Notifications & Expiration timing

A card that expires 11/25 remains valid through the last day of November 2025. It expires at 11:59 PM on November 30, 2025.

Currently, email notifications are not sent automatically when a card expires. You’ll see in-app alerts reminding you to activate your new card before your old one deactivates.

Frequently Asked Questions