Stripe Issuing
Stripe Issuing is a BaaS issuing platform issued on Mastercard, rated 8.3/10 in our latest review. Below: what it costs and what it demands, the tiers the issuer publishes, and how the card cleared our live checkouts.
Stripe Issuing is the strongest fit for ad spend and app store / play, and asks for business KYC at signup — we carry it at low risk. Treat the fee rows as the deciding factor: a card that clears reliably but charges on every top-up costs more than its rating suggests.
Profile
| Issuer / category | Stripe Issuing · BaaS Issuing Platform |
| Official site | https://stripe.com/issuing |
| Best for | Ad spend · App Store / Play |
| Network | Mastercard |
| Rating | 8.3/10 (4.0★, 824 data points) |
| Data quality | verified |
Costs and fees
| Card creation fee | $0 (issuance); per-transaction 0.2%+$0.20 |
| Monthly / annual fee | 0 |
| Top-up (deposit) fee | Not applicable (pre-funded from Stripe balance/bank) |
| FX / conversion fee | ~1% (currency conversion) |
Verification and risk
| KYC required | Business KYC ··· |
| Risk level | Low |
| AVS check | Yes (US AVS) |
| 3-D Secure | Yes |
Funding and limits
| Crypto top-up | No (Stripe prohibits crypto funding) |
| Bank transfer | Yes |
| Alipay / WeChat Pay | Yes |
| Cards per account | Unlimited (API) |
Billing
| Billing address | US/EU/UK |
| Billing country | United States / EU / UK |
Platform compatibility
| ChatGPT | No |
| Claude | No |
| Midjourney | No |
| Netflix / Spotify | No |
| App Store / Google Play | Yes |
| Meta / Google Ads | Yes |
What the issuer states on its own site
- Launch cards that meet local KYC and other compliance requirements with region-specific pricing.
- Emburse onboards users 80% faster and issues 1.6M cards across 22 countries.
- Lopay increases platform stickiness while saving its users £3M in transaction fees.
Source: https://stripe.com/issuing.
How it performed in our tests
| BIN range | Network | Issuing country | Type | Charges | Cleared | Clear rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 236971 | Mastercard | United States | Debit | 279 | 201 | 72.0% |
We logged 201 cleared charges out of 279 attempts on 1 documented range for this brand. Counts include renewals, not just first charges.
Where to go next
Checkout guides built around this card
Category guides
Issuing country
Other Mastercard virtual cards
Frequently asked
What does Stripe Issuing cost to run?
The cost lines stack like this: issuing it costs $0 (issuance); per-transaction 0.2%+$0.20; the recurring charge is 0; top-ups cost Not applicable (pre-funded from Stripe balance/bank); conversion is priced at ~1% (currency conversion). Cash-out costs are what compound here, so weigh the recurring lines above the one-off fee.
Do I need to verify my identity for Stripe Issuing?
Stripe Issuing asks for business KYC at signup. The check runs once when the account opens, not on each charge, and the issuer's own wording is: Business KYC (KYB): registered business entity, EIN, business address, beneficial ownership, principal ID
How can I fund Stripe Issuing?
You can fund it with bank transfer, Alipay or WeChat Pay. Pick the one you can top up cheaply and repeatedly, because the load fee is charged every time.
Which billing address does Stripe Issuing need?
Setting it up: the billing address type is US/EU/UK; cards are issued against United States / EU / UK; an AVS check is applied. Copy the address the issuer generates rather than retyping it. A transposed digit is the most common reason a working range starts failing.
Does Stripe Issuing work for subscriptions and AI tools?
We recorded successful charges for the App Store and Google Play, Meta and Google Ads. Where a card passes on one merchant and fails on another, the difference is usually the processor and the 3-D Secure setting rather than the card itself.
Will Stripe Issuing trigger 3-D Secure?
Yes. Stripe Issuing supports 3-D Secure, so expect a step-up prompt on larger or first-time charges. An OTP you can complete is fine; a challenge that never arrives is what kills the order, so keep the issuer app open at checkout.
How many cards can I open with Stripe Issuing?
The issuer allows Unlimited (API). Multiple numbers under one account is the practical pattern here: one per merchant, so a single block does not take the rest of your billing down with it.
How VCCFinder tests
VCCFinder buys cards at retail and charges them on live checkouts, then publishes the clear rate and decline reasons next to each range. Where a card declined, the reason sits on its BIN page rather than in a footnote here.