As mentioned in Activate Card and Card Types, the process for activating cards and protecting them in transit is different per card type. A card that has not been activated is unusable for both in-person and online transactions. Please see below for a breakdown per card type.

Digital-First Cards

• Digital-First cards are active upon creation. When you create an account with a Digital-First card, the card is immediately usable with a status of 'Active.' This is to enable customers to use the digital version of the card while they wait for the physical version to arrive.
• To protect the card in transit, the account feature (see here for info on account features) type of card_blocks is automatically set to block_physical when a Digital-First account/card is created and when a Digital-First card is replaced. This blocks all in-person usage of the card. Please note: this automatic block overrides any existing card blocks set via Edit Account Features.
• Once a customer has confirmed receipt of the physical card, remove this block by calling the Edit Account Features endpoint. As such, there's no need to use the Activate Card endpoint for newly issued Digital-First cards. This process should also be followed when Digital-First cards are replaced (see Replace Card).

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Digital-First Reissue Caveat

• Reissued Digital-First cards require activation (unlike new ones).
• Transit protection is automatic: on reissue, the block_physical card block is applied so the reissued card cannot be used in person while it is sent_to_emboss.
• The previous card remains usable digitally and in mobile wallet, and you do not need to call Edit Account Features to add the block. When you call Activate Card on the reissued card, the block_physical block is removed automatically and the status changes to card_activated, enabling in-person use.

Physical-Only Cards

• Physical-Only cards are created with a status of inactive. Physical-Only cards do not have a digital representation and thereby must be activated via Activate Card before use.
• Physical-Only cards must also be activated after they are replaced or reissued.

Virtual-Only Cards

• Virtual-Only cards are active upon creation and do not have a physical representation.
• Virtual-Only cards do not require activation.

Summary

The table below summarizes the procedure necessary to fully enable cards once issued.