What is Link?

Link autofills your customers’ payment information to create an easy and secure checkout experience, increasing conversion rates by over 7%.

What are Link bank payments?

In addition to credit cards and debit cards, Link also supports US bank accounts for qualifying purchases. Like cards, qualified Link bank payments receive an instant authorization response and settle to your account in two business days (unlike other bank debit payment methods). Customers can save their bank account and pay using the bank tab.

What transactions qualify for Link instant bank payments?

To be eligible for Link instant bank payments, the following must be true:

• Link must be enabled on the merchant’s account
  • This can be done by enabling it via your Payment Method Settings Dashboard page if your account uses automatic payment methods, or by adding ‘link’ as a payment_method_type to your PaymentIntents integration if you do not use automatic payment methods
• The merchant must be in the US
• The transactions must be presented in USD currency
• The merchant cannot have ACH debits enabled on their account — this is to avoid confusing customers by showing 2 similar bank payment options in the same checkout page. If ACH debits are enabled, then the payment will go through as an ACH debit.
• The merchant account must a proven history of accepting payments on Stripe — for this reason, Link bank payments will not immediately display after going live

In addition to the criteria above, we also look at a number of dynamic factors when determining whether to show instant bank payments, such as the order amount, customer purchase history, and more.

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

To accept Link instant bank payments, the merchant must have a proven history of accepting payments on Stripe — for this reason, Link bank payments will not immediately display after going live.

What is the customer experience for instant bank payments?

Once your customer selects “Bank” as their payment method, they’ll then go through a flow where they 1) consent to using Link, 2) add their email and phone to create their Link account, 3) log into their bank’s portal to connect and select their bank account 4) complete their bank connection and 5) complete their purchase.

Disputed bank payments

Unlike credit card disputes, there is no process for appeal for bank payments.

Customers can 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. The customer’s bank can honor any dispute within this period.

When a dispute is created, Stripe sends both the charge.dispute.created and charge.dispute.closed webhook events and deducts the amount of the dispute and associated dispute fee from your Stripe balance.

Unlike credit card disputes, all bank disputes are final and there is no process for appeal. If a customer successfully disputes a payment, you must contact them if you want to resolve the situation.

Resolving disputes

When a customer disputes a bank payment, it invalidates the mandate associated with the payment method and you can’t reuse it. To attempt a charge again, you must resolve the dispute with the customer and collect a new mandate authorization.