On Perk, you can bring your own third-party cards. Perk supports third-party cards issued in the USA, i.e. existing corporate card and business card networks that are connected to Perk, either through bulk enrollment or by an employee self-enrolling their own card. This article explains what a third-party card is and how account admins and card admins can connect third-party cards for use in Perk.
Caution: This article covers third-party cards for US-issued cards only. It does not apply to EU and UK-issued cards. Check with your Perk account manager to see whether your US-based card program can be connected to Perk.
What is a third-party card?
A third-party card is a corporate or business card an employee already holds with your own bank or card issuer, linked to Perk so its transactions flow into the platform alongside Perk-issued cards. Perk connects to card networks through Astrada, its card data aggregator partner.
Perk supports third-party cards through two enrollment methods:
| How it works | |
|---|---|
| Bulk enrollment |
Perk enrolls your company's entire card program at once. Employees don't need to do anything. As account admin or card admin, you can set this up for your card program by contacting your account manager. |
| Self-enrollment | Employees link their own card directly in the Perk app. |
As account or card admin, you can see the third-party cards linked to your account to review the transactions they generate, the same way you'd review transactions from a Perk Card.
Where to find third-party cards
Once a card is linked (whether employees enrolled the card or Perk added it as part of your company's card program), Perk marks it with an inline note—Third party card—so it's easy to tell apart from a Perk-issued card at a glance.
As an admin, you can see an employee's third-party cards and transactions from Cards > Team cards. You can review third-party card activity and match transactions the same way you would for any other card on the account from Finance > Review > Card transactions.
Reviewing third-party card transactions
Third-party card transactions in Perk follow the same matching flow as other card transactions: when a transaction is imported for a traveler and a trip or spend category, if the traveler has already created an expense with the same details as the transaction, Perk automatically matches it with the third-party transaction.
How quickly a transaction shows up depends on the card network. Some transactions post to Perk at authorization, so they appear in real time, right at the point of purchase. Other transactions post later, at clearing and settlement, so they can take longer to show up.
What admins can't do with third-party cards
Perk doesn't apply spend controls, limits, or policy enforcement to third-party cards—Perk only receives transaction data for them, so any controls need to be set up with the card issuer directly.
Related articles
To learn how employees can add their corporate card, see Add a third-party US card to Perk.