Save details for future payments with pre-authorized debit in Canada

First, you need a Stripe account. Register now.

Use our official libraries for access to the Stripe API from your application:

# Available as a gem
sudo gem install stripe

# If you use bundler, you can add this line to your Gemfile
gem 'stripe'

To reuse a bank account for future payments, it must be attached to a Customer.

Create a Customer object when your customer creates an account with your business. Associating the ID of the Customer object with your own internal representation of a customer lets you retrieve and use the stored payment method details later. If your customer hasn’t created an account, you can still create a Customer object now and associate it with your internal representation of the customer’s account later.

Create a new Customer or retrieve an existing Customer to associate with these payment details. Include the following code on your server to create a new Customer.

curl -X POST https://api.stripe.com/v1/customers \
  -u "
sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
:"

Use this guide to learn how to enable Canadian Pre-Authorized Debits (PADs)—it shows the differences between setting up future payments for cards and using PADs.

Enable Canadian pre-authorized debit as a payment method

When creating a new Checkout Session, you need to:

Pre-authorized debit in Canada

1. Add acss_debit to the list of payment_method_types.
2. Specify additional payment_method_options parameters to describe your transaction. Learn more below.

Payments must specify a payment schedule for customers to authorize when checking out. See PAD Mandates for details on how to choose the right mandate options for your business:

Create a Checkout session

Stripe::Checkout::Session.create({
  mode: 'setup',
  payment_method_types: ['card'],
  payment_method_types: ['acss_debit'],

  # or you can take multiple payment methods with
  # payment_method_types: ['card', 'acss_debit', ...]
  payment_method_options: {
    acss_debit: {
      currency: 'cad',
      mandate_options: {
        payment_schedule: 'interval',
        interval_description: 'First day of every month',
        transaction_type: 'personal',
      }
    }
  },
  customer: customer.id,
  success_url: 'https://example.com/success',
  cancel_url: 'https://example.com/cancel',
})

During the Checkout session, the customer is presented with a UI modal that handles bank account details collection and instant verification with an optional fallback to verification using microdeposits. If the customer opts for microdeposit verification, Stripe automatically sends two small deposits to the provided bank account which take 1-2 business days to appear on the customer’s online bank statement. When the deposits are expected to arrive, the customer receives an email with a link to confirm these amounts and verify the bank account with Stripe. After verification is completed, the payment method is ready to be used for future payments.

Receive micro-deposit verification email

In order to receive the micro-deposit verification email in test mode after collecting the bank account details and accepting a mandate, provide an email in the payment_method[billing_details][email] field in the form of {any_prefix}+test_email@{any_domain} when confirming the payment method details.

Test account numbers

Stripe provides several test account numbers you can use to make sure your integration for manually-entered bank accounts is ready for production. All test accounts that automatically succeed or fail the payment must be verified using the test micro-deposit amounts below before they can be completed.

To mimic successful or failed bank account verifications in test mode, use these meaningful amounts for micro-deposits:

After completing the Checkout Session, you can collect the PaymentMethod ID and a Mandate ID. You can use these to initiate future payments without having to prompt the customer for their bank account a second time.

When you’re ready to charge your customer off-session, provide the payment_method, customer, and mandate IDs when creating a PaymentIntent.