Card Payouts
The Card Payouts solution enables you to send money directly to recipients' cards in real-time, using direct integrations with Visa Direct and Mastercard MoneySend.
Visa Direct and Mastercard Send support both domestic and cross-border payouts.
Card Payouts is available for businesses incorporated in:
- European Economic Area (EEA)
- Singapore
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom (UK)
- United States of America (USA)
Card schemes assign you a code depending on your:
- Line of business
- Region of operation
- Funds transfer use cases
Your code determines the types of payouts you're eligible to perform.
Visa refers to this code as a Business Application Identifier (BAI), while Mastercard refers to it as a Transaction Type Identifier (TTI).
Checkout.com translates your scheme-specific codes into a scheme-agnostic funds transfer type (FTT) code.
Depending on the FTT code you're assigned, you can perform one or more of the following types of funds transfers:
- Money transfer – A consumer-funded transaction in which you send money to a cardholder on behalf of an individual sender
- Direct funds disbursement – A business-funded transaction in which you send money directly to an individual or corporate cardholder
Information
Card schemes do not share your assigned BAI or TTI code with Checkout.com until after the approval process starts. For advice on which FTTs you're likely to be approved for, or regional limitations you may encounter, contact your account manager or request support.
| Fund transfer category | Visa Direct code | Description |
|---|---|---|
Money transfer |
| Account-to-account |
| Funds transfer | |
| Cross-border money transfer | |
| Peer-to-peer (P2P) money transfer | |
| Staged digital wallet transfer | |
Non-money transfer |
| Funds disbursement |
| Loyalty payments | |
| Payroll and pension disbursements | |
Online gambling |
| Online gambling |
When you request a card payout or Apple Pay card payout, you must provide your FTT value in the instruction.funds_transfer_type field.
Information
To simulate card payouts in your sandbox environment with test funds_transfer_type values, contact your account manager or request support.
Card payouts are funded using funds from your sub-account's Available balance.
There are three funding model options for your sub-account:
| Funding model | Description |
|---|---|
Acquiring | Funds are sourced from transactions you process with Checkout.com. |
Acquiring and operational funding | Funds are sourced from transactions you process with Checkout.com, or from your Pending or Operational balance if you have insufficient Available balance. |
Added funds (pre-funding) | Funds are sourced from currency-specific bank transfers you make to Checkout.com |
If you have insufficient funds in your account to perform a payout, you can add funds to your balance.
You can view your sub-account balance in the:
- Business account > Balances page in the Dashboard
- Response to a Get entity balances request
The card schemes immediately treat funds from a successful card payout as good funds. This means the funds are made available to the recipient in real time, without needing additional verification.
Visa Direct and Mastercard MoneySend require card-issuing banks to make funds from a card payout available to the recipient almost instantaneously. Once the recipient's bank accepts the payout, the transaction is final.
This means that after a card payout's status changes to Paid, you can't cancel, void, or reverse it programmatically, for either scheme. This applies even if you sent the wrong amount, or the correct amount to the wrong card account.
Note
If the payout's status is still Pending, you may be able to cancel it. See Cancel a card payout.
Because the funds are already with the recipient, we recommend contacting them directly to arrange a separate transfer to return the funds.
As an exception, Checkout.com may be able to initiate a good faith collaboration request with the recipient's bank on your behalf. This isn't a guaranteed reversal, and the outcome depends on the recipient's bank's cooperation. To request this, contact your account manager or request support.
Checkout.com screens all card payouts for compliance with regulations, such as global sanctions lists and anti-money laundering (AML) checks.
If we can't approve a card payout automatically, we send you a compliance request for more information, also known as a request for information (RFI). While the request is unresolved, the payout's status remains Pending. You must respond within the specified time frame, or the payout fails.
For more information about the types of compliance requests and how to respond to them, see Compliance requests.
To reduce the likelihood of receiving an RFI for a card payout, include the recommended sender and destination fields listed in Reduce sanctions request volumes.
You must have the Compliance Operator user role or a custom role with the following permissions:
Manage compliance requestsView compliance requests
- Sign in to the Dashboard.
- Go to Payments > Processing > Compliance requests.
Any requests that require a response are displayed. Alternatively, go to Payments > Processing > All payments, select the specific payout, and go to the RFI section of the Payment details page. - Select the request to view the form listing the specific information you need to provide, such as sender or recipient details.
- Enter the required information, and select Submit.
We review your response and update the compliance request's status. If you don't respond within the time limit, the request expires and we may decline the payout.
Information
If a payout is declined because a compliance request wasn't resolved in time, the funds are never sent to the recipient. They remain in your sub-account balance, so you don't need to request a return of funds.
You can cancel a card payout while its status is Pending. You can't cancel a payout after its status changes to Paid.
To check the status of a payout:
- Sign in to the Dashboard.
- Go to Payments > Processing > All payments.
- Locate the payout using the payment ID.
If the payout's status is Pending and it has an associated compliance request, you can cancel it as part of your response:
- Go to Payments > Processing > Compliance requests.
- Select the relevant request.
- In the Review compliance request page, mark all the fields as Not available.
- In the Comments section, state that you wish to cancel this payout.
You cannot cancel, void, or reverse a card payout once its status changes to Paid. This is because card schemes require the funds to be made available to the recipient almost instantly.