Payments 101 · lesson 04 · 5 min

The life of a card

Design → issue → activate → transact → renew — and the identifiers that follow the card everywhere.

A card's life starts before plastic exists: the bank designs a product — scheme, currency, fees, limit ranges, statement options. Every card is an instance of a product, which is why launching a new proposition in Everest starts in product management, not in code.

Issuance creates the card record: the customer, the product, the limit, the linked settlement account and delivery choice. Everest returns two things that matter to you forever: a masked card number for display, and the shadowCardNumber — the internal key you'll use in every later API call. The real card number (PAN) stays in the secure vault; you never store or transmit it.

Activation switches the card on after delivery, usually paired with setting a PIN (always encrypted, never in clear).

Through its transacting life, the card accumulates authorizations, transactions and statements. Statuses manage exceptions: blocked when lost (reversible), closed when finished (permanent). Rules cascade sensibly — closing a main card closes its supplementaries.

Renewal and replacement issue new plastic on expiry, damage or loss, carrying the relationship forward — and a virtual card can exist alongside the physical one from day one for online spend, with its own limit model and controls.