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Online payments

Pay by Link

Last updated: 22-Feb-2023

Overview

Pay by Link is an easy and secure way that allows merchants to receive payments from customers. You will generate a payment link by providing payment details (amount and currency) in Verifone Central. You can then share the link with your customers through the desired engagement channels. When your customers visit the link, they are prompted to complete the payment. After they have completed the payment, you can review the payment status and transaction details in Verifone Central under the Payment Links page. This integration method is available via Verifone Central and API.

Requirements

   Before using Pay by Link and to start accepting eCommerce transactions, you will need to generate a Secure Card Capture Key.

Note: If you are going to perform mail order or telephone order (MOTO) transactions where the cardholder shares their card details and you enter their details on their behalf, you will need to use Virtual Terminal.

Pay by Link benefits 

  • If you do not have an e-commerce solution in place or are still building your web shop or mobile app and you need to collect payments from your customers.  
  • If your business is handling phone transactions in a Call Center, you can accept payments in a secure way, and prevent bank details being shared over the phone. 
  • If you need to collect payments in addition to web and in-store checkout by accepting payments on multiple channels (Email / Call Center / SMS / Social Media / QR Codes), thus speeding up the transactions.  
  • If you want to reduce the cart abandonment rates by placing payment links directly in the message sent as a follow-up to customers that left before making a purchase. 
  • If you want to offer your business customers a simpler and quicker way to pay their invoices and improve your cash flow. 

Access

✅ Access: 

  • Merchant Cashier – can generate payment links: create, set the payment and the customer details, send the customer the payment link and follow the transaction status. 
  • Merchant Supervisor – can generate and send payment links and initiate a refund.  

🚫 No Access: 

  • Merchant Admin 
  • Merchant Reviewer  
  • Merchant User

Using Pay by Link in Verifone Central

To generate the payment link, you must log into Verifone Central, navigate to Payment Tools > Pay by Link, and click on the Create Payment Link button at the top of the page:

PaybyLink_How to Create a Payment Link

 

On the next page you will be prompted to enter the following details:

Theme Pay by Link

  1. Select the Organisation to which the transaction belongs. If your account is associated with only one organisation, this field will pre-populate, otherwise, if it is associated with multiple organisations, you will need to select one organization from the list.
  2. Select the Payment Method allowed for this particular transaction. If there is only one payment method, this field will pre-populate. If available, you can select multiple payment methods.
  3. Enable 3-D Secure Authentication, if required. If you enable 3-D Secure Authentication, you will be required to select the 3-D Secure Authentication contract and provide customer details.
  4. (optional) Choose your Preferred language to select the language used in the checkout interface.
  5. Set the Transaction Amount that you want to request from the customer. The currency code will be determined based on the Payment Provider Contract. If a contract is configured to process multiple currencies, select one currency code from the list.  
  6. Set the Link Expiration time to choose for how long a payment link should remain valid. The maximum is 30 days from the time you created the link. Once expired, the payment link cannot be accessed by the customer.
  7. Set a Theme of your choice to personalize the Pay by Link checkout page. You can choose a Default theme (the default template theme provided by Verifone) or a customized theme created via the Checkout Themes editor.
  8. (optional) If you want to send the link directly to the customer using one of the methods provided, you can check Send the link via email or SMS or both.
  9. If you want to perform a sale transaction (authorization + capture), check the Automatically send transaction for capture checkbox. If you leave the Automatically send transaction for capture checkbox unchecked, you have to manually perform the authorization and the capture. Refer to the table below for more information:

AUTHORISATION

An authorisation transaction puts funds on hold. An AUTHORISATION refers to funds on hold which cannot be adjusted - also referred to as a final authorization.

CAPTURE

A capture of funds for a final authorization. The money is withdrawn from the customer’s account.

SALE

A single step transaction which is automatically captured. This can be thought of as an authorisation and capture combined.

This is often also referred to as a "purchase" transaction in some regions. You can opt for the Authorisation + Capture (Sale) step for subscriptions, digital goods, etc.

Note: As a merchant, you might prefer to choose Authorisation and Capture separately if you are unsure of the availability of your products in stock.

  10. (optional) Add the Merchant Reference to identify the transaction or link this transaction to an order ID generated by your own inventory system.

  11. (conditional) If you have enabled 3-D Secure Authentication, then you need to provide mandatory Customer Details.

  12. Once the configuration has been completed, click on Create payment link to proceed.

  13. You are now redirected back to the Payment Links page. In the next section, we will go through the steps to share the link with your customer.

The merchant_reference field for Pay by Link via API and Verifone Central is currently restricted to only 12 characters.

Sharing the Payment Link 

PBL

After creating the Payment Link, you will need to share it with your customer. You can share it through any channel, the Payment Link is mobile friendly.

  1. After creating the Payment Link, you are redirected to the Payment Links page. You can recognize your Payment Link by the Amount, Merchant Reference, Email or by using the search filters.
  2. Click on your payment link to view more details.
  3. Confirm the details of the Payment Link.
  4. The Link URL is what needs to be shared with the customer. Click on the Copy link button.
  5. The link has now been copied to your clipboard. You can now share the link with your customer through a channel of your choosing. In the next step, we will confirm the outcome of the transaction.

An existing active link can be resent up to three times using the actions tab from that specific link and the delivery methods email or SMS, or just by copying and sharing the payment link directly with a customer.

PBL

 Note: An expired or disabled link should not be sent to a customer as it cannot be used to place a transaction.

If a payment link has expired, it can be reactivated and the expiration date can be set at 30 days limit. To reactivate an expired link, you will have to access the link in Verifone Central, set the new expiration date value, and then re-enable the link.

PBL2

Confirmation of payment

The Payment Link history allows you to view if your customer has visited the link and initiated a payment, and the outcome of the transaction. If a payment was placed using 3DS validation, you will be able to access the enrollment and validation steps in the history.

PBL history

If the payment failed or has expired, you can Re-enable the link. If the payment has been completed successfully, you can View Transaction Details.

PaybyLink_Payment link status

Manage Pay by Link transactions

You can choose a transaction from the Payment Links list and click on View Transaction Details to see the Payment Link History (when it was accessed by your customers), and possible Actions to be performed, such as refunds.

Other details available by clicking on the Payment Link:

  • Transaction status: Not paid / Paid / Failed / Expired 
  • Link History & Payment link URL 
  • Link creation and expiration date 
  • Organisation name
  • Payment methods 
  • Transaction amount 
  • Customer details & Billing / Shipping Address 

Actions:

  • Re-enable link if the link is expired by extending the availability with 24 hours
  • Copy link if the transaction was not paid 
  • Disable link if the transaction will not be paid 
  • View transaction details if the transaction was paid 
  • If the transaction failed three times, you must create a new payment link

Using Pay by Link via the API

 

Required fields

To configure Checkout for accepting Pay by Link, the following fields are required: 

  • entity_id - This value can be found in the portal or provided to you by a Verifone employee. The Entity ID can be found in Verifone Central under Administration → Organisations. The 'Organisation ID' listed is the Entity ID.organisation entity ID
  • currency_code - Currency code
  • amount - Transaction amount. Transaction with zero amount value will be considered as account verification and by default implicitly capture will be set to false for an account validation transaction.
  • configurations - Object with one or more payment method configurations
  • interaction type - Type of checkout. Allows for distinguishing payments accepted via different channels.

If the link will be sent via email or SMS, then an additional field is required.

  • notification_methods - The link can be sent automatically using one of the two options (email or SMS) or both of them in conjunction

Here is an example body for creating a Pay by Link:

{
    "amount": random_amount,
    "currency_code": "EUR",
    "entity_id": "entity_id",
    "customer": "customer_id",
    "configurations": {
        "card": {
            "payment_contract_id": "payment_contract_card",
            "threed_secure": {
                "enabled": true,
                "threeds_contract_id": "3ds_contract",
                "total_items": "01",
                "transaction_mode": "S"
            }
        }
    },
    "merchant_reference": "ORDER-random_int",
    "notification_methods": {
        "email":
{             "email_address":test@verifone.com
    },
        "sms":
{             "phone_number":+1123123123123
    },
    "interaction_type": "PAYMENT_LINK"
}

The response for creating the Payment Link will look like this:

{ "id": "string", "url": "string"}

APIs used to update the transaction status

  • Actions that can be performed on a transaction after it was initiated are listed in the Verifone eCommerce API.

Need help?

Do you have a question? On our Support page you will find a list with answers to frequently asked questions.
Did not find the answer you are looking for? Please contact us. We are happy to help.

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