Remove and replace SOFORT in your integration
Learn how to discontinue SOFORT as a payment method and discover suitable alternatives.
Warning
New businesses can’t accept SOFORT payments and our financial partners are in the process of discontinuing SOFORT. For more information, read our support page.
Effective November 29, 2024, Stripe is discontinuing support for SOFORT as a separate payment method for any business on Stripe. You must remove SOFORT before November 29, 2024 to avoid any SOFORT payment failures.
This guide provides instructions to:
- Remove SOFORT from your current payment integration.
- Explore alternative payment methods for your business and region. These include Klarna’s “Pay Now” option.
Remove SOFORT from your payments integration
Removing SOFORT as a payment method affects several aspects of your integration and customer communication. The following sections outline key impact areas, some of which might not apply to your business.
Update your payments integration
The steps to remove SOFORT depend on which type of integration you use. If you’re using dynamic payment methods with any of Stripe’s prebuilt payment UIs (Checkout, Payment Element, Invoicing, Payment Links), Stripe automatically hides SOFORT from the UI.
| Integration type | Removal steps |
|---|---|
| Payment Element (mobile and web) |
|
| Stripe Checkout | Remove sofort from the payment_ specified at CheckoutSession creation. |
| Stripe Invoicing | Remove sofort from the payment_ specified at the invoice’s PaymentIntent creation. |
| Direct API |
|
Update future payments and subscriptions
If you use SOFORT to set up future payments or process recurring payments using SEPA Direct Debit, you must also update those integration paths to prevent future payments from using SOFORT.
Note
Existing SEPA direct debit mandates initiated by SOFORT payments remain active, since SEPA Direct Debit and SOFORT are distinct payment methods.
| Integration type | Removal steps |
|---|---|
| Payment Element (mobile and web) |
|
| Stripe Checkout | Remove sofort from the payment_ specified at CheckoutSession creation. |
| Stripe Invoicing | Remove sofort from the payment_ specified at the invoice’s PaymentIntent creation for recurring invoices. |
| Direct API |
|
Update Connect platform integrations
To discontinue SOFORT for platforms, connectors, or Stripe apps, you must update your payments and onboarding integrations.
For new connected accounts, in the Payment methods settings page of your Dashboard, choose Edit settings for your connected accounts, then set Off by default for SOFORT to block connected accounts from re-requesting the
sofort_capability.payments Update your support articles, dashboard, and documentation to advise your users that SOFORT is no longer available.
Refunds
Refunds continue to process as normal beyond the discontinuation date. SOFORT payments support refunds up to 180 days after the original payment.
Disputes
SOFORT doesn’t support disputes. Any disputes raised on SEPA direct debits payments are subject to the SEPA Direct Debit dispute process.
Migrate your payment flow to an alternative payment method
Stripe offers many payment method options that might be suitable alternatives to SOFORT. How you integrate alternative payment methods depends on:
- Which payment method you choose to migrate to from SOFORT. For example:
- Klarna’s “Pay Now” payment option enabling bank transfer payments is the closest payment flow to SOFORT.
- We also support Pay By Bank in the UK and we’re collecting early interest in expansion to Germany.
- How you use Stripe: are you a platform or marketplace, or a connector or app developer?
- Your payments integration: do you use a Stripe UI or a custom API integration?
Compare alternative payment methods
We’ve included a high-level comparison to help you review your options. For information about integrating any of these alternatives, click the payment method column heading to see its complete documentation.
| SOFORT | Klarna Recommended | SEPA Direct Debit | Bank Transfers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summary | SOFORT redirects customers to their bank’s portal to authenticate the payment, and it typically takes 2 to 14 days to receive notification of success or failure. | Klarna is a global payment method that also offers a “Pay Now” option leveraging SOFORT to support its bank transfers. | SEPA Direct Debit is a reusable, delayed notification payment method. | Bank transfers is a push payment method requiring buyers to log in to their bank outside of the context of the checkout to push a payment to a virtual IBAN. |
| Payment confirmation | Customer-initiated | Customer-initiated | Business-initiated | Business-initiated |
| Recurring payments | Yes, with SEPA Direct Debit | Yes Beta | Yes | Yes |
| Payout timing | Standard payout timing applies. | Standard payout timing applies. | Standard payout timing applied at 35,000 USD of SEPA Direct Debit volume. Below this threshold, 5 business days. | Standard payout timing applies. |
| Connect support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dispute support | No | Yes | Yes1 | No |
| Manual capture support | No | Yes | No | No |
| Refunds / Partial refunds | Yes / Yes | Yes / Yes | Yes / Yes | Yes / Yes (except for international wires) |
1 Automatically honored up to 8 weeks after the account debit.