Card Funding Flow Fraud Prevention Measures

Last updated: September 1, 2026

Why this matters

Glide’s fraud detection engine cuts down on fraud, prevents $0 balance accounts, and gives applicants faster feedback when there’s an issue with their card. Instead of only checking the format of a card number like most providers, we authorize the card and verify its details during the account opening journey. 

$0 Authorization at Card Entry

We now authorize the card as soon as it’s entered, using a $0 authorization check. This ensures the card is active without charging the member.

  • If the auth succeeds: member can proceed

  • If the auth fails: they’ll see this message:

Please use a different card

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to verify your card. Please use a different card or use bank funding to complete your transaction.

On the card entry screen, we've also added:

Your card will be authorized for a transaction, but will not be charged until your membership is approved.

Fuzzy Name Matching

Before we authorize the card, we now compare the cardholder name to the applicant’s name using a fuzzy match.

  • If the names match closely enough: proceed with authorization

  • If they don’t: we block the card attempt and show the message

Please use a different card

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to verify your card. Cardholder name must match applicant name.

This helps prevent use of stolen or mismatched cards. Note: If the member is using Apple Pay or Google Pay, we skip the name match check. These payment methods already provide strong authentication and fraud protections.

Card Funding Attempt Limits

To prevent abuse, we’re introducing a 5-attempt limit on failed card funding.

  • After 5 failed attempts, applicants will see:

Please use a different payment method

Unfortunately, we are not able to accept card payments at this time. Please use bank funding via ACH to fund your account.

We’ll also track this state in the activity trail as:

[Name] reached card funding attempt limit.

AVS Check at Card Input

We’re now able to leverage Address Verification (AVS) at the time the user enters their card information, rather than waiting until the final charge attempt. This means:

  • Mismatched zip codes can be flagged earlier

  • Members get faster feedback if there’s an issue with their billing address

  • We reduce the risk of failed funding due to address errors

Billing ZIP mismatch check

This check is on by default for all FIs, including Apple Pay and Google Pay. At card entry, we compare the billing ZIP on the card (or wallet) to the applicant’s primary ZIP on the application.

If they don’t match, the card is blocked and the member sees:

Please use a different card.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to verify your card. Please use a different card or use bank funding to complete your transaction.

An FI can request that we turn it off.

Failed Card Funding Report

To help staff monitor card issues, we’ve added a Failed Card Funding Report that logs each failed attempt. This includes:

  • Timestamp

  • Glide Transaction ID

  • Glide User ID

  • Applicant Name

  • Card Type (Visa, MasterCard, etc.)

  • Failure Reason

    (e.g., Name mismatch, zip mismatch, return error)

Important to Note

These changes significantly reduce the chances of $0 balance accounts slipping through, but they don’t eliminate the possibility entirely.

There are still edge cases where an account may be opened with a $0 balance. For example:

  • A card may pass the $0 authorization at the time of entry, but get declined at the time of actual funding (e.g., the card is deactivated, canceled, or the balance drops between entry and approval).

Because we only initiate the charge after the application is approved, we recommend that FIs continue to run a periodic cleanup job to close or flag accounts that remain unfunded after a set period of time (most commonly 14 days).