Spend controls are restrictions that a card issuer or card program applies to an individual card or group of cards, deciding in advance which transactions will be approved. They are checked automatically at authorization, so a purchase that breaks a rule is declined at the point of sale. The feature is central to corporate expense cards, fleet and fuel cards, and virtual cards issued for a single supplier or purchase.
Common controls include a spending limit per transaction, day or month, restrictions by merchant category code or by named merchant, limits on countries and currencies, blocks on cash withdrawals or online use, and time windows during which the card is active. A velocity limit caps the number of transactions in a period. Modern issuing platforms let a business set these rules through a dashboard or API and change them instantly. Consumer versions offered in banking apps are usually called card controls.