Set up future PayPal payments

To reuse a PayPal payment method for future payments, you must attach it to a Customer.

Create a Customer object when your customer creates an account on your business. Associating the ID of the Customer object with your own internal representation of a customer enables you to 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.

curl -X POST https://api.stripe.com/v1/customers \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:"

A SetupIntent is an object that represents your intent and tracks the steps to set up your customer’s payment method for future payments.

Create a SetupIntent on your server with payment_method_types set to paypal and specify the Customer’s id.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/setup_intents \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d customer=
{{CUSTOMER_ID}} \
  -d "payment_method_types[]"=paypal \
  -d "payment_method_data[type]"=paypal

The SetupIntent object contains a client_secret, a unique key that you need to pass to Stripe on the client side to redirect your buyer to PayPal and authorize the mandate.

Retrieve the client secret from the SetupIntent you created and call STPPaymentHandler confirmSetupIntent. This presents a webview where the customer can complete the payment in PayPal. Afterwards, the completion block is called with the result of the payment.

let setupIntentParams = STPSetupIntentConfirmParams(clientSecret: setupIntentClientSecret)
setupIntentParams.paymentMethodParams = paymentMethodParams
setupIntentParams.returnURL = "payments-example://stripe-redirect"

STPPaymentHandler.shared().confirmSetupIntent(withParams: setupIntentParams, authenticationContext: self) { (handlerStatus, setupIntent, error) in
    switch handlerStatus {
    case .succeeded:
        // Setup succeeded

    case .canceled:
        // Setup was canceled

    case .failed:
        // Setup failed

    @unknown default:
        fatalError()
    }
}

Use a method such as webhooks to confirm the billing agreement was authorized successfully by your customer, instead of relying on your customer to return to the payment status page. When a customer successfully authorizes the billing agreement, the SetupIntent emits the setup_intent.succeeded webhook event. If a customer doesn’t successfully authorize the billing agreement, the SetupIntent will emit the setup_intent.setup_failed webhook event and returns to a status of requires_payment_method. When a customer revokes the billing agreement from their PayPal account, the mandate.updated is emitted.

When you’re ready to charge your customer off-session, use the Customer and PaymentMethod IDs to create a PaymentIntent.

To find a paypal instrument to charge, list the PaymentMethods associated with your Customer.

curl -G https://api.stripe.com/v1/payment_methods \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d customer={{CUSTOMER_ID}} \
  -d type=paypal

When you have the Customer and PaymentMethod IDs, create a PaymentIntent with the amount and currency of the payment. Set a few other parameters to make the off-session payment:

• Set off_session to true to indicate that the customer is not in your checkout flow during this payment attempt. This causes the PaymentIntent to throw an error if authentication is required.
• Set the value of the PaymentIntent’s confirm property to true, which causes confirmation to occur immediately when the PaymentIntent is created.
• Set payment_method to the ID of the PaymentMethod and customer to the ID of the Customer.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/payment_intents \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d amount=1099 \
  -d currency=eur \
  -d customer={{CUSTOMER_ID}} \
  -d "payment_method_types[]"=paypal \
  -d payment_method={{PAYMENT_METHOD_ID}} \
  -d off_session=true \
  -d confirm=true

A customer can cancel the subscription (Billing Agreement) through their PayPal account. When they do so, Stripe emits a mandate.updated webhook. All subsequent Payment Intents using the saved Payment Method will fail until you change to a Payment Method with active mandates. When payments fail for Subscriptions, the status changes to the Subscription status configured in your automatic collection settings. Notify the customer of failure and charge them with a different payment method.