What are Link instant bank payments?

Link is Stripe’s fast-checkout solution. It securely saves and autofills customer address and payment details, with support for cards, US bank accounts, and other payment methods. Customers can save their payment details on your site or the checkout page of a different business—Link saves and autofills the information on any site where Link’s enabled.

Link instant bank payments let you accept payments from customers with a US bank account. This gives your customers a choice in how they pay without you needing to manage the operational complexity of ACH Direct Debit.

How do I enable Link instant bank payments?

Access to Link instant bank payments is currently limited. New merchants are being added automatically every day. 

If you process a large volume of payments or have a unique business model, contact us via the email signup form for custom pricing options and expedited access.

Are Link instant bank payments the same as ACH Direct Debit?

On your checkout page, Link instant bank payments will display as a “Bank” payment option, while ACH Direct Debit will display as a “US bank account” option. If you are enabled for Link instant bank payments, you can preview this experience on your Link settings page.

Unlike ACH Direct Debit, where it can take up to four business days to successfully process a transaction, Link instant bank payments are instantly authorized. With this, settlement timing matches your card payments and you’re protected from bank-initiated returns that might occur after authorization.

You can’t accept both ACH Direct Debit and Link instant bank payments. If you’d rather accept ACH Direct Debit, you can toggle it on in your payment method settings. 

What is the customer experience for instant bank payments?

If your checkout page uses Checkout, Payment Links, or the Payment Element, new Link  customers who choose to pay with the bank accounts will:

• Click on the “Bank” payment method option 
• Choose their bank 
• Enter their email address and phone number, which creates their Link account
• Log into their bank’s portal and select their bank account
• Complete their purchase

After a customer signs up with Link, they can use their saved bank account without having to reauthenticate with their bank again. Link customers can easily use their saved bank account on any site where Link’s enabled. 

If your customer wants to make changes to their account, view their purchase history, or reach out to the Link customer support team, have them visit link.com.

I have Link enabled. Why do I not see “Bank” as a payment option on my checkout page?

Access to Link instant bank payments is currently limited. New merchants are being added automatically every day.  

To become eligible, you must meet the following conditions:

• Your integration must use Checkout, Payment Links, or the Payment Element.
• Enablement: You must enable Link on your account through your payment settings dashboard or Link settings. You must also disable ACH Direct Debit in your payment method settings.
• Parameters: You use `automatic_payment_methods` in your integration. Alternatively, you can update your integration to set `payment_method_type` to `link`.
• Two-step authentication: You’ve enabled two-step authentication on your Stripe account.
• Onboarding criteria: You must satisfy a set of onboarding criteria, including but not limited to: being a US business and having a history of Stripe usage.

In addition to the criteria listed above, there are additional criteria that vary from merchant-to-merchant and by transaction that may impact your eligibility for offering Link instant bank payments.

How do I handle disputes? 

Disputes with Link instant bank payments behave like cards, and not like ACH Direct Debit. Like cards, when a dispute is created, Stripe debits your balance for the payment amount and dispute fee. Disputes can be viewed and challenged from within the Stripe Dashboard. 

With conventional ACH Direct Debit, disputes are final and there is no process to appeal. 

Customers can generally dispute a payment through their bank for up to 60 calendar days after a debit on a personal account, or up to 2 business days for a business account. In rare instances, a customer might be able to successfully dispute a debit payment outside these standard dispute timelines.