For employees who book business travel on a company payment card, the mechanics of the transaction matter. A charge needs to be traceable, the receipt needs to contain the right information, and the amount on the card statement needs to match what was quoted. Here is how Fare 1 handles all of that.
Adding a Company Card
Payment cards on Fare 1 are stored securely via Stripe, which handles card data to PCI DSS standards. When you save a card on the platform, you can designate it for future bookings without re-entering the details. If you add a company card, it is available for any booking made on your account.
A saved card on your account is yours to manage. If your company card expires or is replaced, you update or replace it in your account settings. Cards are stored under your login, not shared across accounts.
Who Gets Charged
The card charged after a completed journey is the payment method selected at booking. If you select the company card at booking, the company card is charged. If you select a personal card, the personal card is charged. There is no ambiguity between booking time and charge time.
Because Fare 1 uses manual capture — the card is authorised at booking and charged after the trip — there is a window between the booking and the charge. During that window, the company card has an authorisation hold for the fare amount. After the journey, that hold converts to a charge. The amount is identical to the quoted fare.
If a booking is cancelled before the journey, the authorisation hold on the company card is released. The card is not charged for a journey that did not take place.
Multiple Cards on One Account
Some employees maintain both a personal card and a company card on their account, using each for the appropriate type of journey. Fare 1 allows multiple payment methods to be saved. At the point of booking, you select the payment method for that specific trip.
This means a single account can handle both personal and business travel cleanly, with the correct card charged for each without any post-trip reallocation.
PayPal as an Alternative for Business
For businesses that use PayPal business accounts, Fare 1 accepts PayPal as a payment method. The transaction flow is similar: PayPal processes the authorisation at booking and the settlement after the journey. This can be useful for businesses where expense card policies are strict but PayPal business accounts have broader authorised use.
What the Receipt Shows
The VAT receipt sent after every completed journey shows the payment method type — card or PayPal — but not the full card number. For company card bookings, this is sufficient for most business expense or finance purposes: the receipt confirms the amount, the supplier details, the journey, and the date, while the card statement provides the payment reference.
If your finance team needs to reconcile a specific transaction, the booking reference on the receipt is the link between the receipt and the card statement line. Every booking has a unique reference that can be used to trace any query.
Company Accounts as an Alternative to Card-Per-Booking
For businesses that book regularly, paying by company card per trip creates a reconciliation overhead: each trip generates a separate card transaction and a separate receipt. A Fare 1 corporate account consolidates this into a monthly invoice covering all trips, payable centrally. This removes the per-trip card transaction and the per-trip receipt filing.
Whether the card-per-booking model or a corporate account is the right approach depends on your booking volume and your finance team's preferences. For occasional business travel, the company card model works well. For regular or high-volume travel, a corporate account is likely the cleaner option.
Apple Pay and Google Pay for Business
Apple Pay and Google Pay are supported on Fare 1 and transact through the same Stripe infrastructure as card payments. Where a company card is added to an Apple or Google Pay wallet, booking via that wallet charges the company card in the wallet. The receipt and manual capture mechanics are identical.
For business travel purposes, Apple Pay and Google Pay are functionally equivalent to direct card payment — same charge timing, same receipt, same booking reference.
To book and manage payment for your next business journey, visit book.fare1.co.uk.