Limits and Controls in Europe
Marqeta controls
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Marqeta provides several functionalities that allow customers to manage and maintain their own controls and limits through the Marqeta platform. These allow for program configuration, such as card product, user, and transaction controls. Controls details are outlined below.
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Program limits – A group of settings that are applied to a card program that control the behaviors and characteristics of that program. You can configure these settings once for the whole program.
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Authorization controls – Controls that limit spending by specified users at specified merchants. You can:
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Block all merchants by default and manage your allow list.
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Allow spending at all merchants by default and manage your deny list.
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Limit spending at a single merchant or group of merchants.
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Limit a single user, users with a particular card product, or all users.
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Merchant Category Code (MCC) groups – A four-digit number assigned by card networks to a business based on the goods or services offered. You can specify authorization behaviors for one merchant or a group of merchants.
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Velocity controls – Controls that limit how much users can spend and the number of transactions they can make in a given window of time. You can apply velocity controls to a single user, all users associated with a particular card product, or all users in your program.
Program limits
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Marqeta has select default limits in place and works with you to tailor these limits and settings to suit the needs of your program and use cases. These limits can be set once per card program and must be suitable for all cards in your program. Program limits and settings are outlined below.
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Terminate active cards on new card activation
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Enabled as default.
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Terminates any active card for a user when a new card is created.
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Allows one active card per user.
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Maximum active cards per user
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Applicable if terminate active cards on new card activation option is disabled.
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Defaults to 10 active cards between both physical and virtual.
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An active card is any card that is in
ACTIVEorSUSPENDEDstate.
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Maximum card orders per day
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Controls number of physical card orders per day.
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Default is set to 10,000 per day.
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Once the limit is reached, new card orders are declined until the next day.
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Program currencies
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Configures the cardholder billing currencies allowed for your program.
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Must align with the network on what currencies are sent to Marqeta.
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Existing users do not receive any new currencies after they are created.
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Note
For a newly created card, Marqeta automatically terminates all previous cards so that only one card remains active. If you would like to increase the amount of consecutive active cards allowed per user, contact your Marqeta representative.
Authorization controls
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An authorization control limits the spending of specified users at specified merchants. You can limit spending at a single merchant or group of merchants, and by a single user, users with a particular card product, or all users. Authorization controls details are outlined below.
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You can block spending at all merchants by default and then allow spending at specific merchants, or you can allow spending at all merchants by default and block spending at specific merchants.
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merchant_scopecan be used to target specific criteria and can be scoped by:-
mid– Merchant identifier (MID), which is the unique identification number of a merchant. -
mcc– Merchant category code (MCC), which is the code identifying the type of goods or services provided by the merchant. -
mcc_group– MCC group, which is the token identifying a group of MCCs.
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associationcan be used to link the controls to various objects:-
card_product_token– The authorization control is applied to all users holding active cards associated with the specified card product. -
user_token– The user to which the authorization control is applied.
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You can exempt an individual merchant from authorization controls via
/authcontrols/exemptmids. Transactions originating from the MID ignore any otherwise applicable authorization controls.-
Exempt an individual MID using the
midfield. -
Exempt a group of merchants using the
merchant_group_tokenfield.
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Note
Marqeta offers the ability to create an authorization control to block a merchant category code (MCC) or an individual merchant identifier (MID). You can use this control to block transactions from certain groups of merchants.For more information, see Authorization Controls.
Merchant category code groups
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A merchant category code (MCC) group allows you to automatically increase authorization amounts and control the expiration of authorizations for specified MCCs. By default, these controls apply to all cards in your program. An MCC group authorization control can have exceptions defined at the card product level. MCC groups details are outlined below.
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To use the features, enable
allow_mcc_group_authorization_controlswithin the card product. -
Marqeta deploys standard configuration in line with network recommendations:
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Fuel pump (MCC 5542) transactions that request an amount of 1 are increased to 100.
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All lodging and hotels (MCC 3501-3790, 7011) have an expiration hold of 30 days.
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Rental cars have an expiration hold of 30 days.
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hold_increase– Controls automatic increases to the authorization amount for MCCs specified in this group.-
AMOUNT– Represents a fixed amount. -
PERCENT– Represents a percentage of the authorization amount.
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hold_expiration_days– Specifies the number of days after which an authorization associated with this group expires. -
To apply controls to a group of MCCs, link to an authorization control.
For more information, see MCC Groups.
Velocity controls
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You can configure velocity controls to limit how much users can spend and the number of transactions they can make in a given time range. You can apply velocity controls to a single user, all users associated with a particular card product, or all users in your program. Velocity controls details are outlined below.
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description– Field used within transaction payload for transactional declines. A detailed description can be used as a decline reason, which can be displayed to a cardholder. -
velocity_window– Defines the time period when theamount_limitandusage_limitof the velocity control take effect retroactively from the beginning of the specified period.-
DAY– One day. Days begin at 00:00:00 UTC. -
WEEK– One week. Weeks begin Sundays at 00:00:00 UTC. -
MONTH– One month. Months begin on the first day of month at 00:00:00 UTC. -
LIFETIME– Forever. Time period never expires. -
TRANSACTION– A single transaction.
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The following fields configure spending controls to include or exclude specific transactions:
include_withdrawals,include_transfers,include_purchases,include_cashback, andinclude_credits. -
merchant_scopedefines which merchants are allowed and limits spending at specific merchants.
For more information, see Velocity Controls.
Limits and controls responsibilities
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If you have a card program in Europe, there are several responsibilities that you and Marqeta maintain. These responsibilities include:
| Responsibility | Powered By | Managed By |
|---|---|---|
Define and implement spend controls in line with your internal risk policy and/or your issuer’s risk policy |
You |
Marqeta |
Provide functionality and support of Marqeta’s APIs that handle spend and authorization controls |
Marqeta |
Marqeta |
Update and maintain authorization controls and merchant category code (MCC) groups in line with your own risk policy |
You |
Marqeta |
Implement recommended network authorization controls and MCC groups |
Marqeta |
Marqeta |