What’s the difference between a prepaid, a debit, and a credit card?
In principle, both debit and credit cards are accepted worldwide. The main differences are associated with eligibility requirements, credit limit, and benefits and privileges.
In general terms, the differences are:
Prepaid (pay now, buy later)
Debit (pay now, buy now)
Credit (pay later, buy now)
What’s the difference between the Yokoy Platinum Visa and the Yokoy Smart Lodge Card?
The Yokoy Smart Lodge Card is used to pay for business travel booking expenses, in particular flights, train tickets and any other services rendered by a travel agency. The Yokoy Lodge Card doesn’t belong to a specific employee, rather the organization. As the Yokoy Lodge Cards are exempted from 3D Secure, the cards are restricted to certain merchant categories, i.e. airlines, train companies, and travel agencies.
The Yokoy Platinum Visa card is issued to an employee and can be used for purchases from any merchant category (unless restricted by the card admin).
Can I use my Yokoy Platinum Visa card with a domestic payment scheme?
No. Yokoy Platinum Visa cards are not compatible with domestic payment schemes such as iDEAL, Girocard, Switch, PIN, Laser, etc. Domestic payment schemes do not use a card to perform a purchase, rather your bank account details.
How much do you charge for exchanging currencies?
As stated in our Cardholder Terms, no foreign currency surcharges or transaction fees (in foreign currency/abroad) are charged for Yokoy cards.
For currency conversion, Yokoy uses Visa Interchange rates found under this link.
(The “bank fee” entry field has to be set to 0% to calculate the exchange rate only.)
I’ve ordered my Yokoy Platinum Visa card but I still haven’t received it
If you have ordered a new physical card, the cardholder needs to activate it before it can be shipped to the address provided during the order process. If you haven’t received the physical card within ten business days of activation, reach out to Yokoy Support.
How good is the merchant acceptance of debit cards?
In general, Yokoy Platinum Visa cards can be used anywhere in the world where Visa is accepted. In other words, at 150 million merchants in more than 200 countries, making it one of the largest acceptance networks in the world.
Merchant acceptance agreements don’t distinguish between card types, so there is no separate acceptance process for debit cards. For example, many companies ask about debit card acceptance at car rental companies more specifically, which is one of the top merchant categories.
Visa has confirmed that Visa and Visa Debit are accepted by all major car rental companies, but also that there have been cases where individual branches or employees are not aware of this—see Visa's statement on this situation (in German). Known cases where the car rental company refused to accept Visa Debit as a payment method were related specifically to the authorization of the car rental deposit, not to the payment itself, although the underlying process is the same, (i.e. checking account coverage and reserving the deposit amount) and is therefore just as possible with a debit card as with a credit card:
With a debit card, the deposit amount is verified and debited from the account balance.
With a credit card, the deposit amount is reserved on the credit limit.
Visa is therefore actively working to raise awareness of this fact and is in contact with car rental associations and car rental companies to communicate this acceptance. On this basis and in view of developments in recent months, Visa expects that problems with the non-acceptance of Visa cards at car rental companies will continue to decline.
For questions about card acceptance or any card questions, contact Yokoy support.
I‘m required to enter a local (e.g. US) address or a ZIP code when using my Yokoy Platinum Visa card at certain merchants. What do I do?
Generally, merchants need to verify that the person making the transaction is the legitimate cardholder to avoid fraudulent transactions. This is usually done through a combination of card details, such as the card’s security code (CVV) or the expiration date. Some merchants may require the billing address for authorization, while others may not, depending on their payment processing systems and policies.
Entering an address is quite common in the USA. For example, you may be asked to enter a US ZIP code at automated fuel pumps at the gas station. If this happens, you must go and pay inside the gas station as you can’t enter a ZIP code at the pump.
The good news, however, is that fuel merchants are progressively enabling EMV chip acceptance on their automated petrol pumps for enhanced transaction security, so you’ll no longer be prompted to enter a ZIP code.
Do Yokoy Platinum Visa cards include any security checks for online payments?
Yes, Yokoy Platinum Visa cards use “Verified by Visa” (3DS) for all e-commerce transactions. 3DS is an e-commerce authentication protocol that enables the secure processing of payment, non-payment and account confirmation card transactions.
Cardholders have to authenticate e-commerce payments via an one-time password that they receives via text message and in some cases, their security question and answers.
Yokoy Pay adheres to PSD2 and SCA guidelines within the EU region.