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Work in progress

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

• Although the Activate Card endpoint is not typically needed for Digital-First cards, reissued Digital-First cards do need to be activated. See Reissue Card endpoint; cards are typically reissued due to damage or expiration.
• Reissued Digital-First cards are not active upon creation. When a Digital-First card is reissued, it receives a status of 'sent_to_emboss' under the 'embossedCards' object (use Get Card Info or Get Account and Cards to see this object). This status protects the card in transit and obviates the need for setting any card blocks. The old card is usable until the new card is activated.
• After successfully calling Activate Card, the status changes to 'card_activated' under the 'embossedCards' object, thus enabling the card for 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.