Virtual card first-year cost: issue fee and monthly fee compared togetherPut each card's issue fee, monthly fee and top-up rate into the same year and rank the one that's genuinely cheapest in year one
A virtual card's first-year holding cost is issue fee + monthly fee × 12 + monthly top-up × 12 × top-up rate%. Plenty of cards advertise "no issue fee" while a monthly fee or top-up rate quietly stacks the cost up; others charge a high issue fee and almost nothing after. Look at any one line alone and you'll misjudge. This comparison presets no card as cheap or dear; the fees are all your own input from each provider's page, and once filled it lines up the first-year total so the cheapest card jumps out.
An estimate from the fees you entered; each card's fee schedule lists the rest
Where to find a card's issue, monthly and top-up fees
Enter issue and monthly fees as flat amounts and the top-up rate as a percentage, or the comparison isn't fair. Here's what goes in each box:
- Estimated monthly top-up. Roughly how much you load onto the card each month on average, such as 300. This drives the top-up fee, so the closer to reality, the truer the ranking.
- Card name. Whatever label you recognise; it only tags the result and doesn't affect the maths.
- Issue fee. The one-off cost of getting the card, counted only in year one. Enter 0 or leave blank if there's no issue fee.
- Top-up rate %. The percentage charged on each load, found in the card's fee terms. Enter 0 or leave blank if none.
- Monthly fee. The fixed management or account fee charged each month; the tool accrues it over 12 months. Enter 0 or leave blank if there's no monthly fee.
Run the "Estimated monthly top-up" once at your high-frequency bracket and once at your low one, and the ranking can flip: heavy toppers dread a high top-up rate, light toppers dread monthly and issue fees. So the "cheapest card" someone else recommends may not be cheapest for you; compare once with your own real top-up volume before the answer counts.
Questions people ask
- Why only the first year, not the long run?
- Because the first year shows best where a card is expensive: the issue fee is one-off and only counts in year one, while the monthly and top-up fees accrue across twelve months. Comparing all three layers within the same year captures the one-off cost and reflects everyday use, far fairer than looking at just the monthly fee or just the issue fee. To see year two onward, set the issue fee to 0 and run it again.
- I only want to compare two cards. Can I leave the third blank?
- Yes. Give at least two cards one fee each (any value in issue fee, monthly fee or top-up rate marks a card as active), and leaving the whole third row blank ignores it. A missing field counts as 0, so if a card has no monthly fee, just leave the monthly field blank.
- Is the first-year cost the exact amount I'll spend?
- No. It multiplies your monthly top-up by twelve; real top-ups vary, and there can be withdrawal, conversion or inactivity fees that aren't in the table. Those sit in each card's fee schedule, usually linked at the bottom of the provider's site as fees or pricing. Read the inactivity and withdrawal lines before you load money, because they decide what it costs to stop using the card.
Note: what you type is worked out on this page only; it isn't sent anywhere or saved. The fees and top-up are yours, so the result is an estimate; each card's actual charges are in its fee schedule. Updated 2026-09-28.