The Problem with Traditional Virtual Cards — and How Straight-Through Processing Fixes It

Most finance teams have learned the hard way that “virtual” doesn’t always mean effortless. Traditional virtual cards promised convenience and control, yet they’ve added layers of friction that make suppliers groan, AP teams juggle manual workarounds, and adoption rates stall out.

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Let’s unpack why the old model broke down, and what a genuinely modern approach looks like.

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When “Virtual” Still Feels Manual

The core issue is simple: the traditional virtual-card experience was designed for consumer e-commerce, not high-volume B2B payables.

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Suppliers often refuse card payments because of steep interchange fees that hover around 2.9%–3.5%, cutting directly into their margins. In a 2024 survey by PYMNTS, a majority of mid-market suppliers indicated they prefer ACH because virtual-card fees are too high.

Even when suppliers agree, the process is clunky. Someone on their team must manually key in a 16-digit number into a terminal or payment portal. If multiple invoices are covered by one virtual card, it can fail because many merchant terminals only accept one payment per invoice—a limitation that makes sense for a coffee shop, but not a B2B vendor managing dozens of line items.

Some suppliers insist payments be entered directly on their website, forcing buyers to manually log in and pay online, invoice by invoice. These failure points add up: what was meant to be automated ends up looking suspiciously like busy-work.

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Why It’s Time to Rethink Virtual Cards

The shortcomings aren’t just about user experience. They’ve fundamentally limited adoption. According to research by Mastercard, 89% of large B2B suppliers say that balancing their business-needs with buyer payment demands is difficult, and about two-thirds say they aren’t meeting buyer payment expectations.
Meanwhile, from a broader perspective: 73% of businesses still process supplier payments using paper-based methods (manual entry, checks) which slows everything down. 

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The opportunity now isn’t to abandon card-based payments, but to reinvent how they flow. Instead of sending card numbers that suppliers must process, imagine a world where the buyer funds with a card, but the supplier simply receives an ACH deposit.

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That’s the concept behind the straight-through processing model at Centime, and it changes everything about how card payments work.

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The Straight-Through Model: What It Solves

Under the straight-through model, the card becomes the funding mechanism, not the payment rail. Here’s what that means in practice:

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• The buyer pays with their existing commercial card just as they always have.
  
  
• The supplier receives funds via ACH, automatically and securely. No terminals, no card entry, no swiping.
  
  
• The transaction qualifies for Level 3 processing, which can bring effective interchange rates down to around 1.9%, nearly 40% less than typical virtual card fees.
  
  
• Buyers and suppliers can negotiate fee sharing, creating win-win economics that don’t rely on supplier concessions.
  
  

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In other words: it’s virtual cards without the friction. A buyer maintains rewards and float benefits, while suppliers get the convenience and low cost of ACH.

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Built for Banks, Ready Out of the Box

One of the pain-points that our team has highlighted is that most bank-issued virtual card programs take three months or more to integrate because they require new issuing or tokenization.

Centime’s model sidesteps all of that: because it works with any existing business or commercial card program (Visa/Mastercard/etc.), banks can deploy card-enabled AP programs almost immediately, with no custom builds or separate issuer agreements.

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That faster time-to-value means banks can offer modern, revenue-generating AP payment capabilities without rebuilding their tech stack.

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Beyond Credit: The Debit Card Opportunity

The same straight-through mechanism opens another door: debit-funded ACH payments.

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By regulation, debit interchange averages roughly 0.25% + $0.50 per transaction, a fraction of credit interchange. That gives customers predictable pricing and faster access.

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And because a debit card can be onboarded in about two minutes, any business can start making electronic payments right away, without underwriting or bank account setup.

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This creates possibilities in traditionally underserved industries where ACH onboarding is often blocked but banks can still issue debit cards. These debit-to-ACH transactions settle on a “premium ACH” timeline, giving finance teams faster liquidity movement without the wire-costs.

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The Real Future of Virtual Cards

What’s emerging isn’t another variation of the same tool—it’s a fundamentally new payment model.

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Traditional virtual cards digitized plastic. Straight-through processing digitizes the entire AP-to-supplier relationship. It keeps the benefits of card funding (rewards, float, fraud controls) while removing the reasons suppliers resist.

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The result is a system that finally works for everyone involved:

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• Buyers get extended payables and card rewards.
  
  
• Suppliers get low-cost, automatic deposits.
  
  
• Banks get faster deployment and higher card volume.
  
  

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It’s the next generation of virtual card payments—one that’s truly virtual where it counts. Stop wrestling with legacy virtual cards. Book a demo to see the smarter way to pay suppliers.

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