Activate a card

Last updated: January 28, 2026

The following cards must be activated before the cardholder can perform transactions:

Newly created physical cards
Virtual cards created using the API with "activate_card": false
Suspended cards

You can activate cards using:

The cardholder can activate the card in the following ways:

Performing their first Chip and PIN transaction at a point of sale (PoS) – This also enables the card for contactless payments.
Withdrawing cash from an ATM

The cardholder can access the card's personal identification number (PIN) in your mobile app, using the Android or iOS Card Management SDK. Alternatively, you can send them the PIN via mail.

Note

Cardholders cannot make contactless payments until after they perform a Chip and PIN transaction, even if the card is already successfully activated.

You must have one of the following user roles:

Admin
Support manager
A custom role with the Create and edit cards and cardholders; Simulate transactions permission

Sign in to the Dashboard.
Go to Issuing > Cards.
Select the card you want to activate.
In the Card details page, select Activate card.

Call the Activate a card endpoint, and provide the card ID prefixed with crd_ as the {cardId} path parameter.

Information

Your base URL's {prefix} value is unique to your account and environment. To learn how to retrieve your base URLs for the sandbox and production environments, see API endpoints.

post

https://{prefix}.api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/{cardId}/activate


1{
2  "_links": {
3    "self": {
4      "href": "https://{prefix}.api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/crd_fa6psq42dcdd6fdn5gifcq1491"
5    },
6    "revoke": {
7      "href": "https://{prefix}.api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/crd_fa6psq42dcdd6fdn5gifcq1491/revoke"
8    },
9    "suspend": {
10      "href": "https://{prefix}.api.checkout.com/issuing/cards/crd_fa6psq42dcdd6fdn5gifcq1491/suspend"
11    }
12  }
13}

After you've integrated the Card Management Android SDK or iOS SDK, you can activate your cardholder's cards in your mobile app.

Note

You must migrate to Android SDK version 3.0.0 or iOS SDK version 4.0.0. For guidance on how to update your integration, see Support – Issuing Card Management SDKs migration guide.

Call the getCards() method to get all the cardholder's cards or getCards(cardId) to get a specific card:

Note

The getCards() method throws a CardManagementError which you must catch. For example, using catch (as in the example) or runCatching.


1// Call coroutineBased getCards in the context of a coroutineScope
2try {
3  // Get all the cardholder's cards
4  cardManager.getCards(statuses = setOf(CardState.ACTIVE, CardState.REVOKED))
5  
6  // Get a specific card
7  cardManager.getCard(cardId: "<cardId>")
8} catch (e: CardManagementError) {
9   when (error) {
10        is CardManagementError.Unauthenticated -> // Prompt login
11        is CardManagementError.ConnectionIssue -> // Show network error
12        else -> // Handle other errors
13    }
14}


1do {
2   // Get all the cardholder's cards
3   let cards = try await cardManager.getCards(statuses: [.active, .suspended])
4   
5   // Get a specific card
6   let cards = try await cardManager.getCard(withID: cardId, statuses: [.active,.suspended])
7} catch let error as CardManagementError {
8  switch error {
9    case .authenticationFailure:
10      // Handle the authentication error
11    default: 
12      // Handle other errors
13  }
14}

Call the Card.possibleStateChanges() method to request the possible statuses you can change the card to:


1// Returns a list of possible statuses you can change the card to
2val possibleNewStates = card.possibleStateChanges
3
4// You can activate the card if the status was returned by possibleStateChanges
5if (possibleNewStates.contains(CardState.ACTIVE)) {
6  <coroutineScope> {
7    val result = card.activate()
8    handleCardStateTransition(result)
9  }
10}


1import CheckoutCardManagement
2
3class YourObject {
4
5  // Returns a list of possible statuses you can change the card to
6let possibleNewStates = card.possibleStateChanges
7
8// You can activate the card if the status was returned by possibleStateChanges
9if possibleNewStates.contains(.active) {
10    do {
11       try await cardManager.activate()
12    } catch let error as CardManagementError {
13      // activation failed - handle error accordingly
14    }
15  }
16}

Complete the change to active status:


1fun cardStateChangeCompletionHandler(result: Result<Unit>): Unit {
2  result
3    .onSuccess {
4      // The card status is successfully updated and reflected by both the back end and the SDK
5    }.onFailure {
6      // If something goes wrong, you receive an error with more details
7    }
8}


1func cardStateChangeCompletion(_ result: CheckoutCardManager.OperationResult) {
2    switch result {
3    case .success:
4        // The card status is successfully updated and reflected by both the back end and the SDK
5    case .failure(let error):
6        // If something goes wrong, you receive an error with more details
7    }
8}

You can set up webhooks to be notified when cards are activated:

Activate a card

Activation by cardholder

Note

Activate a card in the Dashboard

Activate a card using the API

Information

Response example

Activate a card in your app

Note

Retrieve the cardholder's cards

Note

Request the possible status changes

Change to active status

Set up webhooks