Character Limit Enforcement for Cards

Release Date

October 26, 2026

Products Affected

Create Card, Renew Card, Reissue Card,and Convert to Physical Endpoints

Impact

Cardholder name will be limited to a combined 26 characters across all physical card lifecycle endpoints

Audience

All Customers

Action Required

Enforce 26 character limit prior to using physical card endpoints

Overview

Lithic will begin enforcing cardholder name character limits on the shipping_address object across all physical card lifecycle endpoints: Create Card, Renew Card, Reissue Card, and Convert Virtual to Physical.

Details

Today, Lithic documents that the total combined length of first_name and last_name may not exceed 26 characters (25 for the name fields plus 1 space), but currently accepts a combined length greater than 26. The name is truncated before sending to our card fulfillment providers to minimize production-rejected records due to ISO 7813 requirements.

After the enforcement, Lithic will return a 400 error "The combined length of 'first_name' and 'last_name' may not exceed 25 characters (26 including the space on the physical card). Received (N) characters."

The combined character limit will be enforced on all endpoints that accept shipping_address for physical cards:

Release Timeline

Sandbox Enforcement: August 25, 2026

Production Enforcement: October 27, 2026

User Impact

Clients must update their validation of first_name and last_name character lengths across all physical card lifecycle API calls before the release dates. After enforcement, requests exceeding these limits will be rejected with a 400 error.

Specifically, clients should:

Ensure first_name is always provided (non-null, non-empty, minimum 1 character)
Ensure the combined length of first_name + last_name does not exceed 25 characters
Apply these validations to Renew, Reissue, and Convert to Physical flows — not just initial card creation

We recommend clients validate their existing integrations against the sandbox environment after the sandbox enforcement date to identify any impacted flows before production enforcement.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us via the HELP link in your Lithic Dashboard.

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