Tide is the first UK business card provider to remove printed numbers from its card.
The new numberless design removes the card number, 3-digit security code and expiry date - stopping unauthorised online, mail or phone fraud if a card is lost, shoulder surfed, stolen or intercepted.
This change reduces Tide’s exposure to fraud involving the physical card numbers, which cost UK businesses and consumers £465million1 in 2024.
It comes as card-not-present fraud hits a record high - up 11% year-on-year.
London, 12 August 2025: Tide, the UK’s leading business management platform, has become the first UK provider of business cards to remove printed numbers from its cards - eliminating its own exposure to several major types of card fraud that rely on visible card details.
New Tide cards will no longer carry a printed long card number, expiry date or 3-digit security code. Instead, these sensitive details are stored securely in the Tide app. This means that if a Tide member’s card is lost, shoulder surfed, stolen or intercepted, it can no longer be used to make unauthorised online purchases, phone payments or mail orders.
By removing card details from the plastic itself, Tide has eliminated its exposure to these specific types of fraud - offering greater protection to its members and encouraging others in the industry to do the same.
The move comes as remote purchase fraud - a type of ‘card-not-present fraud’ - reaches an all-time high in the UK. According to UK Finance, losses from this fraud type hit £399.6 million in 2024, an 11% year-on-year increase and the highest figure ever recorded. A further £65 million was lost across related fraud types that also rely on printed card details, including counterfeit card fraud, card ID theft, and card-not-received fraud.
George Schmidt, UK/Europe CEO at Tide, said: “Criminals have been plundering printed card details for too long, and small businesses have paid the price. By removing numbers from the reverse of our cards, we’re helping reverse the rise of online card fraud.
“We’re proud to be the first in the UK to roll out numberless cards for business owners, and to help raise the bar for card security across the industry.”
Darren Deal, Senior Vice President, Fintech, Government and Digital Partnerships, Mastercard UK & Ireland, said: “At Mastercard, we’ve already committed to phasing out manual card entry across Europe by 2030. That means working with innovative partners like Tide to give British businesses safer, more convenient ways to pay and get paid. Tokenised transactions are secure, seamless and strengthen anti-fraud protections for British business owners.”
Tide’s numberless cards are being rolled out soon to new and existing members, in collaboration with Mastercard.
Alongside the new design, Tide will also be extending the lifespan of its cards from three to four years, reducing unnecessary re-issuance and saving an estimated 270kg of plastic annually - the equivalent of around 27,000 plastic bottles.
-ENDS-
Contact:
Lloyd Purnell, PR & Communications Lead, Tide.
lloyd.purnell@tide.co
1 All fraud statistics referenced in this release are taken from the UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2025, published in June 2025. The following categories of card fraud, all of which rely on printed card details, accounted for a combined £465 million in losses in 2024:
Remote Purchase (Card-Not-Present) Fraud: £399.6m (up 11% YoY; highest figure on record)
Card ID Theft: £58.7m
Counterfeit Card Fraud: £3.9m
About Tide:
Founded in 2015 and launched in 2017, Tide is the leading business financial platform in the UK. Tide helps SMEs save time (and money) in the running of their businesses by not only offering business accounts and related banking services, but also a comprehensive set of highly usable and connected administrative solutions from invoicing to accounting.
Tide has 750,000 SME members in the UK (13% market share) and more than 750,000 SMEs in India. Tide launched in Germany in May 2024. Tide has also been recognised with the Great Place to Work certification two years in a row.
Tide has been funded by Anthemis, Apax Partners, Augmentum Fintech, Creandum, Salica Investments, Latitude, LocalGlobe, SBI Group and Speedinvest, amongst others. It employs 2,500 Tideans worldwide. Tide’s long-term ambition is to be the leading business financial platform globally.
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