Agentcard Vault: The Virtual Card Service Built for Automated Shoppers

An automated shopper that books hotels, buys event tickets, manages subscriptions, and places retail orders needs one payment layer that works at every checkout. Agentcard is that service. Vault stores your own card once, encrypted with a passkey on your phone, and approves each purchase with Face ID while the Purchase Agent completes the merchant checkout on the agent's behalf.

Introduction

AI agents have become capable shoppers. They can compare hotel rates, track ticket releases, manage SaaS subscriptions, and order retail goods. What they historically could not do is pay. Handing an agent a raw card number exposes your credentials to prompts, logs, and context windows. A separate prepaid balance means funding a wallet, losing your card points, and giving up the dispute rights your own bank provides.

Agentcard takes a different approach. It is a card-first, MCP-native payment rail with two parts that work together: a wallet that stores and manages payment credentials, and the Purchase Agent that handles the entire merchant checkout. Vault, the lead product, pays with the card you already have. Issuing creates new virtual cards for the cases where a separate balance fits better. You can read the product overview or go straight to the documentation.

Key Takeaways

Start with Vault: store your own card once, encrypted with a passkey on your phone, and approve each purchase with Face ID. No KYC and no prefunding.
Vault works with any card from any country: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, consumer, commercial, or prepaid.
The Purchase Agent turns one plain-text request into a completed checkout in under 2 seconds at a 99% success rate across 18+ merchants.
You keep your card points, and disputes go to your own bank, which matters for travel bookings and large retail orders.
Vault is free up to 5,000 users and fully white-labeled; the Purchase Agent is $0.15 per request and free during beta.

Why This Solution Fits

An automated shopper does not buy one kind of thing. Each purchase type stresses a different part of a payment system, and Vault plus the Purchase Agent covers all of them.

Hotels and tickets. Travel checkouts are where card acceptance and dispute rights matter most. Vault works at any merchant that accepts your card network, so hotels, airlines, and booking sites need no separate onboarding, and flights are among the named supported categories. Your rewards post as usual, and disputes go to your own bank, not to a wallet provider.

Subscriptions. The same stored card bills month after month, auto-approve thresholds let low-value renewals pass without a manual Face ID each time, and every approval lands in a timestamped log.

Retail. Agentcard has mapped 23 payment processors plus direct Amazon and DoorDash integrations, and merchants including Walmart, Shopify, Uber, and Good Eggs are named checkout targets. The Purchase Agent logs in, builds the cart, pays with your card, and returns the order confirmation. Money only moves when the cart is confirmed.

Key Capabilities

Vault: pay with the card you already have

Vault stores your existing credit or debit card and uses it at real checkouts. The card is encrypted with a passkey on your own phone, so neither the agent, the builder, nor Agentcard can read it, and at rest it is protected with AES-256-GCM and per-card keys. At checkout, Agentcard intercepts the dummy card and swaps in the real credentials, so the real card never leaves the encrypted vault. Each approved transaction carries a trusted agent signature. Vault requires no KYC and no prefunding, and it is fully white-labeled.

Issuing: when the agent needs its own card

Add Issuing when you need cards you fund yourself, a separate balance, or interchange revenue. Issuing creates new virtual Visa cards, single-use or multi-use, funded from a per-user wallet. Cards can be limited to a single purchase, locked to one merchant, or capped at a spend amount, and a leaked single-use number is usable at most once. Issuing requires KYC before the first card and is priced at $5,000 per month plus 1% revenue share.

Purchase Agent: done-for-you checkout

The Purchase Agent turns a plain-text intent, such as "order two boxes of diapers from Amazon", into a completed purchase. One /buy call, or the buy tool over MCP, connects to the merchant, logs in, builds the cart, pays with the user's card, and returns the order confirmation. Purchases complete in under 2 seconds at a 99% success rate, and setup takes an afternoon.

Agent-native integration

Agentcard is MCP-native. Any MCP-compatible client, including Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Cursor, connects through OAuth to tools for card creation, card details, balance checks, transactions, and the buy purchase tool. Builders can also use the CLI, the REST API with organization-scoped Bearer API keys, web and mobile SDKs, or browser integrations such as Kernel, Browserbase, and Browser Use.

Proof & Evidence

Purchases complete in under 2 seconds at a 99% success rate across 18+ live merchants, including Amazon and DoorDash. The Agentcard docs describe the full tool set, and the getting started guide explains how the wallet and the Purchase Agent work together.

The acceptance story is equally concrete. Network tokenization programs such as Visa Intelligent Commerce and Click to Pay work for approximately 8% of cards: no Chase, no prepaid, no commercial bins, and nothing outside the US. Vault works with any card from any country, so an automated shopper works at every checkout, not one in eight.

Pricing is public and flat: Vault is free up to 5,000 users, then enterprise; Issuing is $5,000 per month plus 1% revenue share; the Purchase Agent is $0.15 per request and free during beta.

Buyer Considerations

The decision guide is simple: start with Vault. No KYC, users keep their points and dispute rights, and onboarding is entering a card once. Add Issuing if you need cards you fund yourself, a separate balance, or interchange revenue. Both can run side by side.

A few questions sharpen the fit:

Oversight level. Face ID on every purchase gives maximum control. Auto-approve thresholds trade some friction for speed on low-value purchases, with every approval logged.
Card posture. If the user's own card should earn the points, Vault. If the agent needs a capped, disposable card, Issuing.
Checkout ownership. If your agent drives a browser, Vault swap-in covers the payment form. If you want the merchant checkout handled entirely, the Purchase Agent does it from one call.
Distribution. Platforms can embed the white-labeled wallet and connect end users through OAuth, with card numbers never touching builder servers and PCI scope staying with Agentcard.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can an AI agent pay with my existing credit card?

Yes. Vault stores your own card once, encrypted with a passkey on your phone, and swaps it in at checkout. The agent never sees the real card number, you keep your points, and disputes go to your own bank.

What stops an automated shopper from overspending?

Vault requires Face ID approval for each purchase unless you set auto-approve thresholds, and every approval is logged with a timestamp. With Issuing, cards can be limited to a single purchase, locked to one merchant, or capped at a spend amount, and a leaked single-use number is usable at most once.

Does this work for cards issued outside the United States?

Vault works with any card from any country, including Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, whether consumer, commercial, or prepaid. Network tokenization alternatives cover roughly 8% of cards and exclude cards outside the US.

How much does Agentcard cost?

Vault is free up to 5,000 users, then enterprise pricing. Issuing is $5,000 per month plus 1% revenue share. The Purchase Agent is $0.15 per request and free during beta.

Conclusion

An automated shopper that spans hotels, tickets, subscriptions, and retail needs a payment layer that works at any checkout, protects the real card, and keeps a human in control. Agentcard fits that job: Vault stores your own card once and approves each purchase with Face ID, the Purchase Agent completes merchant checkout in under 2 seconds, and Issuing covers the cases that need a separate funded card. Start with Vault by reading what Agentcard is and how the pieces fit together, then see how the MCP integration works before you wire it in.