Instant Bank Payments

Instant Bank Payments let your customers pay with a US bank account using Link. Unlike ACH Direct Debit, Instant Bank Payments deliver instant confirmation and faster settlement, protection from common ACH failures, and an accelerated checkout experience.

Instant Bank Payments are automatically enabled when you turn on Link, subject to eligibility requirements. Not all businesses or transactions are eligible for Instant Bank Payments.

For information about how your payment integration affects Link, see Link in different payment integrations.

Payment flow

At checkout, the Instant Bank Payment flow depends on whether the customer has a Link account.

Flow for new Link customers

Under Payment details, they select Bank, then search for and select their bank.

They click Agree and continue.

They enter their email and click Continue with Link.

They enter their bank login credentials and click Submit.

They click Back to Powdur.

The customer then returns to the payment details page and continues with their new Link account.

Flow for existing Link customers

When a customer with a Link account encounters Link at checkout, they have the option to pay with their saved bank account.

Under Payment details, they select Bank, then search for and select their bank.

They enter their email and click Continue with Link.

They enter their 2FA confirmation code.

They select their saved bank account and click Connect account.

They click Back to Powdur.

The customer then completes the transaction.

Timing and guaranteed settlement

Confirmation of Instant Bank Payments is immediate, and authorized payments settle to your Stripe balance on the same timeline as card payments. Stripe guarantees that authorized payments settle to your account unless the customer initiates a dispute with their bank.

Instant Bank Payments are subject to two types of returns:

• Bank-initiated ACH returns: Stripe still guarantees settlement and doesn’t debit any funds from your balance.
• Customer-initiated disputes: When your customer initiates a dispute with their bank, Stripe debits your balance for the payment amount and dispute fee. To respond and provide supporting text and images, follow the same guided process in your Stripe Dashboard as for cardholder disputes.

Availability of Instant Bank Payments

Instant Bank Payments are built into Link for users in the US. For eligible transactions, your customers see Instant Bank Payments as a payment option.

To learn about using Link with dynamic payment methods and other integrations, see Link payment integrations. The following payment integrations support Instant Bank Payments:

• Checkout
• Payment Links
• Hosted Invoice Page
• Payment Element
• Mobile Payment Element

Eligibility

Some businesses and transactions aren’t eligible for Instant Bank Payments. In a given session, Instant Bank Payments appear as a payment option only when certain risk criteria are met. Some examples include:

• Two-step authentication: You must enable two-step authentication on your Stripe account.
• Onboarding criteria: You must satisfy certain onboarding criteria, including, but not limited to, being a US business and having a history of Stripe usage.
• Transaction limits: Eligible transactions must be below an amount dynamically set by our risk systems. By default, Instant Bank Payments are presented only for transactions under $500.
• ACH Direct Debit: If you have enabled ACH Direct Debit for a transaction, then Link doesn’t present Instant Bank Payments as a payment option.

Interaction with ACH Direct Debit

You can’t present both ACH Direct Debit and Instant Bank Payments as payment options for the same transaction. If you enable both ACH Direct Debit and Instant Bank Payments, ACH Direct Debit takes precedence at checkout:

• When creating a Checkout Session, PaymentIntent, or SetupIntent, if you explicitly offer ACH Direct Debit by including us_bank_account in payment_method_types, Link never presents Instant Bank Payments as a payment option.
• When using dynamic payment methods, for any transaction that’s eligible for ACH Direct Debit, Link doesn’t present Instant Bank Payments as a payment option. However, you can restrict ACH Direct Debit eligibility by configuring a payment method rule. For all transactions that don’t meet the ACH rule criteria but that are eligible for Instant Bank Payments, Link presents Instant Bank Payments as a payment option.

We recommend ACH Direct Debit for businesses that don’t immediately fulfill goods and services, and that can wait up to 4 business days to confirm a payment.

Testing

Stripe provides a set of test institutions and bank accounts to simulate various success and failure scenarios.

Simulate successful bank account connection

• Payment Success: Simulates a successful bank account connection and an authorized payment.
• Success (Later Disputed): Simulates a successful bank account connection and an authorized payment, then generates a customer-initiated dispute. You can view the dispute in the Dashboard.
• Payment Blocked: Simulates a successful bank account connection and a payment that Stripe declines due to elevated risk.

Simulate failed bank account connection

• Down Bank (Scheduled): The institution’s login API is unavailable for a known time period that the institution communicated to Stripe.
• Down Bank (Unscheduled): The institution’s login API is unavailable without any information about the downtime communicated to Stripe.
• Down Bank (Error): Stripe is experiencing an unknown error communicating with the institution.