Card Status Lifecycle

Every card carries a status field. It's the single source of truth for whether a card is usable, still activating, temporarily suspended, or gone for good. All the values status can hold:

Status	What it means	Valid transitions to	Money movement / permissions
processing	Order submitted; card is being provisioned by our card issuer. Usually 10-20 seconds, and at most 2 minutes. You'll see this on a card immediately after calling any issue endpoint.	→pending_activation →frozen_pending_activation →locked →active	None (card doesn't exist yet)
pending_activation	Provisioned and waiting on the cardholder to finish activation. The default state for virtual cards issued via account link or any card with an activation profile applied; the card is held here until the cardholder completes the flow.	→ active → frozen_pending_activation → closed → reassociated	✅ Load 🚫 Spend
frozen_pending_activation	A pending_activation card that got frozen before the cardholder finished activating. Common when a business detects fraud on a card awaiting activation and wants to pause it. Unfreezing sends it back to pending_activation (not directly to active) so the activation flow still has to be completed by the cardholder.	→pending_activation →closed →reassociated	✅ Load 🚫 Spend (Cardholder cannot unfreeze; only a business admin or GiveCard Customer Support can)
active	Fully activated and usable for transactions. The end state for a successful activation flow, or the starting state for cards issued with no activation.	→ frozen → locked → reassociated → closed	✅ Load ✅ Spend
frozen	Suspended by a business admin or GiveCard Customer Support. Cardholder cannot unfreeze. Used when a card is reported lost or stolen, when a fraud pattern is detected, or when the sponsoring program wants to pause spend without closing the card.	→ active → reassociated → closed	✅ Load 🚫 Spend (business admin or Customer Support can unfreeze; cardholder cannot)
locked	Cardholder-facing suspension, like the lock toggle on a typical consumer card. Used when the cardholder misplaces the card and locks it as a precaution, or when an admin locks it during investigation but wants the cardholder to be able to unlock it themselves later.	→ active → reassociated → closed	✅ Load 🚫 Spend (cardholder or admin can unlock)
reassociated	Card was moved to a different cardholder or account. Terminal state. Used during account merges or corrections where a card's history needs to move to a different user without issuing a new plastic.	None (terminal)	🚫 Load 🚫 Spend
closed	Card permanently closed. Terminal state. Reached via card expiration, cardholder off-boarding, or when a card is reissued (the old one closes, the new one takes its place).	None (terminal)	🚫 Load 🚫 Spend

Money movement / permissions

Two things matter for card money movement: loading funds onto the card, and the cardholder spending them. The rules that apply across every status:

• Loading works on every provisioned, non-terminal state. pending_activation, frozen_pending_activation, active, frozen, and locked cards all accept loads. This is deliberate: it lets you pre-fund a card before the cardholder activates it, keep funding a card that's on a temporary hold, and separate "the card is out of use for now" from "the card is unfundable." Only processing (card is not yet provisioned with our issuer) and the two terminal states (closed, reassociated) reject loads.
• Spending requires active. No other status authorizes transactions. A loaded card in pending_activation, frozen, or locked will decline at the merchant.
• Who can move a card out of a hold state:
  • frozen and frozen_pending_activation: only a business admin or GiveCard Customer Support. Cardholders cannot.
  • locked: cardholder or admin.
  • closed and reassociated: terminal, no way out.

This structure lets you separate "the card is temporarily out of use" (freeze, lock) from "the card is gone" (close, reassociate), so you can keep funding a frozen card and put it back in service without losing its history.

frozen vs locked, and why we have both

locked is what most consumer card issuers offer: a cardholder-facing toggle the cardholder can flip on and off from their portal, the same way you'd temporarily disable a lost card until you find it again.

frozen is different, and relatively unique to GiveCard. Only a business admin or GiveCard Customer Support can toggle it, and once a card is frozen the cardholder cannot unfreeze it themselves. That's the point: if a card is reported lost, stolen, or compromised, the business can freeze it and keep it out of the spendable state even if the wrong person ends up holding the card or the linked cardholder account. It's an extra layer of protection tailored to programs where the sponsoring business needs the final say on whether a card can be reactivated.

Status transitions by activation path

Which statuses a card passes through between issuance and first spend depends on which activation path you chose. See the Card Activation page for details on each path.

• Activation profile: processing → pending_activation → active (once the cardholder satisfies the profile).
• Account link: processing → pending_activation → active (once the cardholder creates their GiveCard account and links the card).
• No activation: processing → active as soon as the card is provisioned. Skips pending_activation entirely.

Read the Card Activation pages for more information on activation.