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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.pexcard.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Spend policies can be applied to cards to designate where and how the cards can be used. It helps decrease the potential for fraud and misuse. Once a spend policy is applied or updated, it takes effect immediately.
You can create multiple spend policies for your business accounts and apply them to different cardholders or cardholder groups. Watch a step-by-step demonstration here!

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How to create spend policy

  • Log in to dashboard.pexcard.com
  • Click “Business settings” on the left menu
  • Navigate to the ‘Spend policies’ top menu tab
  • Click the ‘Create new policy’ button
  • Enter policy name
  • Configure rules to meet your business needs:

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    General rules:

    Use auto-card funding:Auto Card Funding is an easy way to give your cardholders access to funds without needing to directly fund a card. This feature increases liquidity as it allows you to give multiple cardholders access to all the funds available in your PEX Account and eliminates the need to fund each card individually. International use: Definition of “International”
    • PEX defines as “International” any transaction outside the 50 US States and the District of Columbia
    • This is the case even when the transaction is denominated in US Dollars (e.g., in Panama, where US dollars are legal tender)
    ISA (International Service Assessment) Fee
    • International transactions incur the mandatory International Service Assessment (ISA) fee, 3% of the value of the transaction
    • Administrators can see the ISA fee as a separate line item within the transactions list

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    In-person and online spend rules:

    No restrictions - A Cardholder can make purchases in-person and online.
    Card present (in-person) transactions only - Cardholder can ONLY make purchases in-person.
    Card not present (online) transactions only - Cardholder can ONLY make purchases online.

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    Time-based spend limits:

    The PEX system gives Administrators powerful tools for controlling cardholder spending — by setting limits on how much a cardholder can spend in a certain period of time:
      • Daily (24 hour period — Midnight to Midnight ET)
      • Weekly (Sunday to Saturday)
      • Monthly (1st to 31st)
      • Annual (Jan 1st to Dec 31st)
      • Lifetime

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Merchant categories:

Note: Admins may set a per-transaction dollar limit for any merchant category. This feature is useful to ensure that company spending policies are enforced by declining transactions that exceed company maximums and allowing only anticipated levels of spending.
This makes it easier than ever to control employee spending by limiting transaction amounts at restaurants, on transportation, and more.
When you create or modify a spending rule, you’ll see a max purchase field to the right of the merchant category. In the “Per Purchase” field, any single transaction will be limited to the amount you enter in that field.

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Merchants:

Merchant locking is a convenient way to restrict spending, and can be done by using merchant deny list / allow list, or by creating a vendor card and locking to a single vendor. When searching for a vendor, it is important to keep the following tips in mind:
    • Ensure that the spelling and spacing are accurate, including dashes and apostrophes
    • Enter as many characters as possible for the most accurate search results
    • If the merchant you’re searching for has a name shorter than 4 characters, try entering in a ‘space’ character
If you are still unable to find the vendor you want, you can choose to expand your search (see below). However, the merchant results that appear from an expanded search have not been validated in our database and it is up to your discretion to use them for your card restrictions.

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Limit days for spending:

In cases where your employees or volunteers should not be able to spend on all seven days of the week, PEX provides the ability to limit spend by day of week. For example, you can limit spend to only Monday - Friday, or only Saturday/Sunday. Purchases made outside of these days will be declined automatically.
Note: Days of the week are defined from midnight ET to 11:59:59ET daily.

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Limit states for spending:

For organizations with limited geographical operations, you can reduce your risk of fraud by limiting spend by state. For example, if your organization primarily operates in California, you may wish to prevent spend in other states, especially those on the East Coast. Spend that takes place out of permissible state(s) will be automatically declined.
Use the arrow buttons to move states from the “approved states” list to the “blocked states” list and vice versa.
Tip: Hold cmnd+click (mac) or ctrl/shift+click (win) to select multiple states
Last modified on May 5, 2026