Plastic Business Cards

They're worth it when the card has to survive rough handling or the material is part of your brand. Plastic doesn't warp, stain or tear, and clear or frosted PVC does something paper can't. They're not worth it if you want letterpress, embossing or a painted edge, because plastic can't take those. For a big event run, 20pt Standard is usually enough; for a card people keep in their wallet, 30pt is the better buy.

Standard 20pt plastic cards cost Get a price for 100, Get a price for 250, $284 for 500 and $313 for 1,000. Custom 30pt cards start at Get a price for 250 and cost $410 for 500, with white ink, foil, spot UV and two-sided printing as add-ons. Every order includes a designer's proof and free shipping within the continental US. NFC plastic cards start at $149 for 25.

Our Custom plastic cards are 30pt, about 0.76 mm, which is the thickness of a standard credit card, and they feel like one: stiff and cool with a clean snap. Standard cards are 20pt, about 0.5 mm, so they're lighter and bend more. Both come in credit-card size (3.375 × 2.125 in) or US standard (3.5 × 2 in). For paper, see our guide to business card thickness.

Ours are PVC (polyvinyl chloride), the rigid plastic used for credit cards, hotel key cards and membership cards. It comes clear, frosted, white or black. PVC doesn't absorb ink the way paper does, so colour sits on the surface, and on clear or frosted stock it stays see-through unless a white layer is printed underneath.

Yes. PVC doesn't absorb water, so a plastic card can be rained on, splashed at a bar or wiped clean without warping or going soft. The printed surface can still scuff with years of hard wear in a pocket; frosted plastic hides scuffs best because the matte surface diffuses them.

Clear cards are fully transparent and glossy: you see straight through them. Frosted cards are translucent: light passes through a soft matte surface, so you see shapes and shadows but not detail. "Translucent" and "transparent" are often used for both. Frosted is easier to design for because colour and small type read better; clear is more dramatic but needs bold, dark artwork or a white underprint.

Yes, on our Custom 30pt line. We print an opaque white ink layer first, either as a design element on its own or underneath colour so the colour reads solid. Without it, white artwork on clear plastic simply disappears, and colour on black plastic barely shows. On black cards, very small light-coloured type is crisper in foil than in white ink.

Yes, two-sided printing on clear and frosted plastic is available on Custom; Standard clear and frosted cards print on one side. Because the plastic is see-through, the back always shows through the front. We design both faces together: one side carries the detail and the other stays mostly open, so the layering looks intended rather than muddy.

Yes to both. QR codes print in flat dark ink, at least 2 cm square, and on clear or frosted plastic we print a white patch behind the code so phones can read it. NFC cards have a chip and antenna sealed inside 30pt white PVC; tapping the card to a phone opens your link. On clear and frosted plastic the antenna would be visible, so NFC plastic is built on white unless you want the coil on show.

Plastic can be foiled, but not embossed, debossed or letterpressed. Those techniques press a die into soft paper fibre and leave a permanent dent; PVC has no fibre, so it springs back or stress-marks. Foil works well, especially silver or gold on black or frosted plastic, and we confirm every foil-on-plastic job before the die is made. For texture you can feel, choose raised gloss or foil; for a deep impression, choose thick cotton.

Standard plastic comes in credit-card or US standard size with rounded corners included. Custom shapes, larger formats and unusual sizes are quoted per job, because each shape needs its own cutting die. Send us the outline and we'll confirm it can be cut cleanly before you pay.

Standard ships in 3–4 business days after proof approval (estimate), plus shipping. Custom plastic takes about 3 weeks after proof approval. These are estimates, not guaranteed delivery dates. We don't offer rush production, but Standard orders can upgrade to faster shipping at checkout. If you have a date, tell us when you order and we'll tell you straight whether it's tight.

ID badges, key cards, membership and loyalty cards, gift cards, barcodes and runs over 2,000 are custom-quote jobs, not part of our business card lines. Anything that has to work with a reader, whether that's a barcode scanner, a door lock or a till, we check before we take it on. Tell us what the card has to do and we'll confirm what we can build before you pay. For a business card with a chip, our NFC plastic cards are the ready-made route.

Mostly their phone: a digital profile, a QR code, or a card with an NFC chip that opens a link when it's tapped. A plastic card can carry the first two and hand over the third. Print a QR code on the back, or choose an NFC plastic card with the chip sealed inside, and the person across the table gets your name in their hand and your link on their phone. And the printed side still does its job when someone's phone battery doesn't.

We make them on both lines: Standard 20pt clear from Get a price for 100, and Custom 30pt clear with a white layer behind the artwork from Get a price for 250. We're not the cheapest plastic card online and won't pretend to be. What the price includes is a designer's proof that catches the thing that most often goes wrong on clear (white and pale artwork disappearing) before anything prints. If cost decides it, the per-card price is lowest on larger Standard runs, and frosted or white plastic will forgive a design that clear won't.

Yes. On clear, ink tints the plastic instead of covering it, so white and pale colours vanish and thin type goes faint. Use bold, dark marks, or put a white layer behind anything that has to read solid (a Custom add-on). The back shows through the front, so design both sides together, and give a QR code a white patch to sit on. Our designer checks all of this at proof, and our guide to designing for plastic cards walks through the file setup.