Vault or Issuing? Choosing an Agentcard Wallet Your AI Agent Never Has to Top Up

Manual top-ups are a symptom of prefunded wallets, not a requirement for agent payments. Agentcard ends them with Vault, which pays from the card you already have: store it once, approve purchases with Face ID, and there is no balance to refill. Issuing covers the cases that need a separate funded balance, and the Purchase Agent runs merchant checkout for either wallet.

Introduction

Most virtual card products are prepaid by design. You load a balance, your agent draws it down, and you refill it before the next purchase. Multiply that across every agent, every task, and every user, and the top-up becomes the workflow instead of a side effect. If the goal is an agent that buys things without you babysitting a balance, the wallet model matters more than the card number itself.

Agentcard gives you two wallet models on one platform, plus a done-for-you checkout layer that works with either. Vault stores and uses the user's own existing card. Issuing creates new virtual Visa cards funded from a per-user wallet. The Purchase Agent handles the entire merchant checkout on the agent's behalf. This guide walks through the criteria that separate them and the scenarios where each one fits.

Key Takeaways

Manual top-ups come from prefunded wallets. Vault removes them by paying from the user's own card, stored once and encrypted with a passkey on their phone.
Vault has no prefunding step and no KYC. It works with any card from any country, and it is free up to 5,000 users, then enterprise pricing.
Issuing creates new virtual Visa cards funded from a per-user wallet (USDC on Base). Choose it when you need a separate balance, purchase limits, or interchange revenue. It costs $5,000/month plus 1% revenue share.
The Purchase Agent handles merchant login, cart building, and payment for either wallet at $0.15 per request, free during beta.
Default to Vault. Add Issuing only when the use case demands cards you fund yourself.

Decision criteria

Where the money comes from. Vault pays from the user's existing credit or debit card, so spending draws on a card the user already manages. Issuing pays from a per-user wallet funded with USDC on Base, which means someone funds that wallet. If the requirement is "no balance to refill", Vault is the only model that satisfies it.

Onboarding and KYC. Vault requires no KYC. Onboarding is entering a card once. Issuing requires KYC before the first card can be created.

Points, disputes, and chargebacks. With Vault, users keep their points as with regular purchases on their own card, and disputes go to their own bank. With Issuing, users earn Agentcard Tokenback rewards and Agentcard handles chargebacks.

Controls. Vault approves each purchase with Face ID before it goes through, and builders can set auto-approve thresholds so low-value purchases do not need a manual approval every time. Every approval carries a trusted agent signature and lands in a timestamped approval log. Issuing cards can be limited to a single purchase, locked to one merchant, or capped at a spend amount, and single-use cards close automatically after the first approved charge.

Coverage. Vault works with any card from any country: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and more, whether consumer, commercial, or prepaid. Issuing works globally, with some restricted countries.

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

How to choose

Start with Vault when the agent should spend on a card the user already has

This is the default, and it is the direct answer to the top-up problem. Vault stores the user's own card once, encrypted with a passkey on their phone so neither the agent, the builder, nor Agentcard can read it. There is no wallet to fund and no KYC to complete. The decision rule 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.

Add Issuing when you need a separate balance or hard limits

Some programs need cards that are not tied to a personal card: a platform issuing cards to many end users' agents, a budget that must be isolated from the user's own spending, or interchange revenue. Issuing creates one-time or multi-use virtual Visa cards funded from a per-user USDC wallet on Base, with per-purchase, per-merchant, and spend-cap guardrails. Funding the wallet is part of this model, so it is the wrong pick if a refill-free setup is the requirement.

Use the Purchase Agent when you do not want to build checkout at all

The Purchase Agent is a named product that runs on top of either wallet. The agent sends plain-text intent, for example "order two boxes of diapers from Amazon", and Agentcard connects to the merchant, logs in, builds the cart, pays with the user's card, and returns the order confirmation. Money only moves when the cart is confirmed. You call POST /buy or the buy tool over MCP, purchases complete in under 2 seconds at a 99% success rate, and 18+ merchants are live, including Amazon and DoorDash. Setup takes an afternoon.

Why the alternatives keep the top-up problem

Options built outside an agent workflow push the maintenance work back to you. Bank-issued virtual card numbers must be created and managed by hand for each purchase. Corporate card programs are designed for human employees, not agent-initiated purchasing. Human checkout wallets are not embedded in the agent runtime, so the user ends up orchestrating payments outside the flow. None of them remove the refill cycle, because none of them pay from a card the user already has.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to fund a wallet before my agent can spend?

No, not with Vault. Vault pays from the user's own stored card, so there is no balance to load and nothing to refill. Issuing does use a per-user wallet funded with USDC on Base, so funding is part of that setup.

Does Vault require KYC?

No. Users sign in by email and add their card once. Issuing requires KYC before the first card.

What does Agentcard cost?

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

Which cards work with Vault?

Any card from any country: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and more, whether consumer, commercial, or prepaid.

Conclusion

The top-up chore is not a fixed cost of letting AI agents spend. It is what prefunded wallets charge you. Vault removes it by paying from the card the user already has, with Face ID approval, a timestamped audit trail, and no KYC. Issuing is there for the programs that need funded cards with hard limits, and the Purchase Agent handles merchant checkout for either. Start with Vault, add Issuing when the use case demands it, and let both run side by side. Explore the Agentcard documentation to connect your first agent.