You can set spending controls to allow or block transactions at specific merchants by settings their Merchant Name. These are applied at the Card Level.
To allow merchant:
- While Creating a Card or Updating a Card, set an array of allowed merchants that should be allowed.
- At the time of the transaction, if the Merchant Name matches with the allowed Merchant, then the transaction is approved. If not, then it is declined.
Allowed Merchants Example:
- Let's say a Lunch Card needs to be issued that can only be used at Subway and Campus Cafe.
- The Meal Card is created with the two allowed Merchant Names set:
"allowedMerchants": [
"Subway",
"Campus Cafe"
],
- If the card is used to buy lunch at Subway, the transaction gets approved as Subway is an allowed Merchant Name for the card transaction (assuming there are sufficient funds in the account and no other spend controls are set).
- If the card is used at a McDonald's or a Dunkin Donuts, the transaction gets declined as the merchant is not in an allowed Merchant Names set for the card.
To block merchant:
- While Creating a Card or Updating a Card, set an array of blocked merchants that should be blocked.
- At the time of the transaction, if the Merchant Name matches with the blocked Merchant, then the transaction is declined. If not, then it is approved.
Blocked Merchants Example:
- Let's say a Gas Card needs to be issued that cannot be used at Arco or Valero.
- The Gas Card is created with the two blocked Merchant Names set:
"blockedMerchants": [
"Arco",
"Valero"
],
- If the card is used to fill gas at Shell, the transaction gets approved as Shell is not a blocked Merchant Name for the card transaction (assuming there are sufficient funds in the account and no other spend controls are set).
- If the card is used at a Arco or Valero, the transaction gets declined as the merchant is in the blocked Merchant Names set for the card.
Note: For a card, you can only set allowedMerchants or blockedMerchants. You can't set both at the same time.