Payment Types
This page details some of the common forms of payment which are referenced in many of our APIs.
There are many different forms of 'payment instrument'; the item or mechanism a party uses to pay another party. The main categories for these within our APIs are:
- Card - a physical or digital card entity, these will sit under a 'card scheme' such as Visa and contain information like a card number and expiry date, the data required and stored in this case follows a specific set of rules
- Cash - the old fashioned way, very little data about the instrument can be stored in this case
- Alternative - an alternative form of payment, such as digit wallets like Google Pay or PayPal, or tokenised card data, the data stored here varies depending on the service used
Card Brands
See the following table for some detail on the combined set of card brands / schemes referenced across our APIs. Note that not all APIs will necessarily support all card schemes.
| OUR CODE | NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
VISA | Visa | Most common card scheme supported almost everywhere |
MC | MasterCard | Second most common card scheme supported almost everywhere |
MAESTRO | Maestro | Brand of debit cards owned by Mastercard, will be phased out of use in Europe starting in 2023 |
CUP | China UnionPay | National bank card network in China |
DINERS | Diners Club | Card brand owned by Discover |
JCB | JCB | Internation payment brand based in Japan, works with Discover and AMEX |
AMEX | American Express | Closed-loop payment scheme |
PP | Polcard Prepaid | A type of prepaid card used in Poland |
PRIV | Private Label | A card that has been private labeled by another company, usually has another underlying scheme |
CARTBLANC | Carte Bancaire | Local card network in France |
GIRO | Giro Card | Local card network in Germany |
PAGO | Pago | Local card network in Italy |
VPAY | vPay | SEPA debit card, often co-branded with local networks like Giro in Germany |
RUPAY | RuPay | Global payment network primarily based in India |
Alternative Payment Methods
Examples of alternative payment methods (sometimes abbreviated to APM's) are as follows:
| OUR CODE | NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
BLIK | blik | Mobile / instant payment system used in Poland |
SEPADD | SEPA Direct Debit | An instant payment solution following the SEPA Direct Debit mandate |
ELV | ELV (Elektronisches Lastschriftverfahren) | Electronic direct debit payment method that is supported by banks in Germany |
POSTFIN | PostFinance | Most common alternative payment method in Switzerland |
IDEAL | iDeal | Online banking SEPA payment method |
KLARNA | Klarna | Buy-now-pay-later service |
SOFORT | Sofort | Instance payment solution |
PAYPAL | PayPal | Most widely used digital wallet |
PBL | Pay-by-link | Method used for providing payment links to customers for invoicing |
VIPP | Vipps | Mobile payment method used in Norway |
EASYCASH | EasyCash | Mobile / digital wallet |
MOBILEPAY | Mobile Pay | Mobile / digital wallet |
TWINT | TWINT | Mobile / digital wallet |
SWISH | Swish | Mobile / digital wallet used in Sweden |
ALIPAY | AliPay | Mobile / digital wallet based in China |
WECHATPAY | WeChat Pay | Mobile / digital wallet based in China |
Updated about 1 month ago
