What are push-to-card transfers? A guide to enabling faster payments at scale

Push-to-Card Transfers for Faster Payments Key takeaways:

• Push-to-card transfers for faster payments are real-time money transfers from various payment sources to cards through existing payment rails.
• Some practical ways to leverage push transactions include real-time merchant payouts, loan disbursements, gig-worker payouts, and neobank card-to-card transfers.
• Leading companies like Allstate, CloudTrucks, FanDuel, and Fold have used Push-to-card transfers for faster payments to unlock new growth opportunities.
• Astra’s push-to-card transfers full-stack solution is a faster, safer, and easier way to enable push-to-card transactions at scale without having to build complex integrations. 

Let’s face it—everyone wants access to their money as quickly as possible. Instant payout methods like push-to-card help your users access funds quickly, fueling your platform’s growth and helping you differentiate your product. 

Per a recent study by Mastercard on push payments, Google Pay saw a 7.85x lift in transactions from first-time users after integrating push-to-card transfers into its platform. 

So, if you’re a SaaS startup, fintech company, or payroll provider looking for a faster, cheaper, and more efficient way of handling payments, what’s the best way to integrate push-to-card to your platform? 


In this article, we’ll cover:

• What is push-to-card?
• How push transactions work
• 5 practical ways to leverage push-to-card transfers
• Push-to-card implementation examples
• Enabling push-to-card transactions using Astra’s plug-and-play API

What is push-to-card?

A push-to-card transfer is a financial transaction that enables instant money transfers to cards from any source using existing payment rails. The money usually hits the recipient’s card in minutes. 

Here’s how integrating push-to-card unlocks growth:

• Improves wage access: Rather than waiting days for checks to clear, workers can receive their earnings immediately. This increases the effectiveness of your earned wage access program.
• Offers more liquidity: Push-to-card transfers provide more liquidity to merchants by allowing them to access their money faster. This helps them overcome cash flow gaps and improves access to capital.
• Simplifies transfers: Push-to-card transfers are simple to execute, as senders only need the recipient’s card details. This eliminates the need to enter long bank account or routing numbers.
• Increases customer loyalty: Easier access to funds increases merchant loyalty. This improves stickiness and expands your market share.

How push-to-card works

Push-to-card leverages payment rails like Visa Direct and Mastercard Send to push payments instantly from a funding source to a debit card. Here’s an overview of the steps involved:

1. The sender initiates a payment to the recipient’s debit card by providing the 16-digit card number, expiration date, and other verification details like CVV.
2. The payment request travels through the card network (Visa Direct, Mastercard Send, etc.) similar to a normal card purchase, just in reverse — from the sender’s bank to the recipient’s card issuer.
3. Additional data like sender details, transaction amount, and purpose codes are transmitted using the ISO 20022 messaging standard to enable better tracking and reconciliation.
4. If approved, funds are posted to the recipient’s account immediately or within minutes.
5. Notifications are issued to the sender and receiver confirming completion of the money transfer.

Now that we’ve covered what push-to-card is, let’s look at how you can use it to boost your platform’s growth.

5 practical ways to leverage push-to-card for platform growth

Here are some actionable ways to leverage push-to-card transactions to unlock more growth opportunities for your business: 

• Software platforms can offer real-time merchant payouts: Push-to-card enables real-time payouts from software platforms to merchants, providing them instant access to funds. Giving merchants quick access to capital breeds loyalty, helping you retain and attract customers over time. 
• Financial institutions can offer instant loan disbursements: Financial institutions can disburse loan funds instantly to borrowers’ debit cards using push-to-card. Faster funding offers a better customer experience, aiding platform growth.
• Payroll platforms can enable faster wage access: Payroll platforms can offer push-to-card to help their users offer instant payroll disbursements to employees, contractors, and gig workers. Happier employees equals better business for payroll platforms.
• Crypto platforms can offer instant withdrawal off-ramps: Crypto platforms can help users instantly withdraw funds from their crypto wallets to debit cards using push-to-card as an off-ramp. Faster fiat currency access helps platforms differentiate themselves in a competitive market.
• Neobanks can offer instant card-to-card transfers to customers: Neobanks can leverage push-to-card to enable instant peer-to-peer transfers between customers’ debit cards, providing a memorable user experience that increases loyalty.

Examples of successful push-to-card implementations

Push-to-card has unlocked new growth opportunities for many companies in the SaaS, fintech, and payroll space. Here’s a look at how a few of them have used it. 

Moves

Moves is an all-in-one financial platform and banking app designed specifically for the gig economy. 

Gig workers rely on multiple income streams and need quick access to funds. However, most traditional payment methods, which can take several days to process, leave them with gaps in their cash flow. 

Moves, in partnership with Astra, offered instant account funding and real-time transfers to external debit cards. 

Now, users can instantly transfer money in and out of their Moves account 24/7, using their debit card. After the integration, Moves saw a 33% increase in account activations and a 4.5x jump in instant transfer volumes. 

Within 90 days of implementation, its deposit rates doubled.

Allstate

Allstate, one of the largest insurance companies in the US, was looking for faster ways to disburse payments to improve the claim experience.

It partnered with Mastercard Send for push-to-card claim payments to enable instant claim disbursements. Faster payments delivered funds to policyholders quickly in their time of need and reduced Allstate’s operational costs. 

Ultimately, push-to-card reduced the company’s claims processing cost by 50% by helping them move away from checks.

Evolve Bank & Trust

Evolve Bank & Trust, one of the oldest financial institutions in the US, wanted to help gig workers access their wages faster.

With Mastercard Send, Evolve Bank helped its advance-paycheck-access clients increase transaction volumes by 51% and processed amounts by 47%.

Fold

Fold is a neobank that offers a debit card rewards program where users can earn bitcoin rewards (known as “Satoshis”) on everyday purchases.

After integrating with Astra, Fold could help its users fund their debit cards as soon as they received rewards. In just 60 days of partnering with Astra, Fold was able to increase its transaction volume by 200%, with the average monthly deposit amount rising by $1,600 per user.

Fanduel

FanDuel, a leading online sports betting platform, found that players wanted quicker access to their winnings using the same debit card they used for account deposits.

Fanduel worked with Visa Direct to allow customers to instantly receive their winnings on their Visa debit cards, becoming the first platform in the US gambling sector to offer real-time access to winnings. 

In less than five months, Visa Direct payouts grew to 25% of the platform’s total withdrawals. In Q1 2021, Visa Direct powered 54% of all withdrawal transactions on FanDuel’s horse racing betting platform.

What Astra’s full-stack solution and push-to-card can do for you

Push-to-card is a great way for you to differentiate your product in the market and deliver a memorable customer experience that increases user retention.

But what is the best way for you to implement it?

Designed with product teams in mind, Astra is a full-stack payments solution with a fast, secure, and scalable API to facilitate instant transfers between bank accounts, cards, and wallets. 

Astra can help you:

• Link bank accounts, debit cards, and mobile wallets via PCI-compliant methods
• Initiate real-time transfers between accounts, cards, and wallets globally
• Move money instantly without lengthy settlement delays

Companies like CloudTrucks, Fold, and Splitwise rely on us to facilitate real-time money transfers at scale. Ready to see Astra’s real-time push-transactions API in action? Book a demo today.

Frequently asked questions

What is push-to-card? 

A push-to-card transfer is a financial transaction that enables instant money transfers to cards from any source using existing payment rails. The money usually hits the recipient’s card in minutes. 

What is the difference between push-to-card and pull-from-card? 

The main difference between push-to-card and pull-from-card lies in who initiates the transaction. With push-to-card, the sender pushes funds to the recipient’s card. 

With pull-from-card, the recipient pulls funds from the sender’s card after obtaining authorization. 

What is an example of a push-to-card payment? 

Common examples of push-payments include:

• Software platforms offering real-time merchant payouts to debit cards
• Financial institutions offering instant loan disbursements to user cards
• Payroll platforms enabling faster wage access to employee cards
• Crypto platforms offering instant withdrawal off-ramps to user cards
• Neobanks offering card-to-card transfers to customers

Can push-to-card transactions be reversed? 

Yes, push-to-card transactions can sometimes be reversed, but the ability to do so depends on the specific service and rules around reversibility. For example, some push-to-card services offered through the card networks allow reversals within 30 minutes if initiated quickly after sending. 

However, these types of push payments are generally meant to be final, like cash, when they settle, with no buyer protection. So, reversibility is limited compared to credit card purchases or ACH transfers.