A method and an apparatus for binding a bank card in a payment application are disclosed. The method includes the following steps: obtaining a picture of a to-be-bound bank card; identifying the picture of the bank card to obtain bank card information, where the bank card information includes a card number of the bank card and information about a bank card pattern; searching, based on the information about the bank card pattern, for a bank card background picture that matches the information about the bank card pattern; and superimposing the card number of the bank card on the bank card background picture to obtain a virtual bank card consistent with the bank card. A technical solution provided in this application is advantageous to desired user experience.