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What is it? A bank transfer request initiates the process of withdrawing money directly from a customer’s bank account. This can be used for both one-time payments and recurring transactions like subscriptions or bill payments.
When to Use
  • You want to accept payments directly from customers’ bank accounts.
  • You need to set up recurring payments or subscriptions with lower transaction fees than card payments.
  • You want to offer customers an alternative payment method to credit/debit cards.
ScenarioBen sets up automatic recurring payments ($150) for a monthly subscription to Maple Street Coffee, one of Clearpath Payment’s acceptors, using his checking account ending in 5678. Clearpath Payments submits a request to initiate a bank transfer from Ben’s bank account on behalf of Maple Street Coffee.

Steps

  1. Call the initiateBankTransfer mutation, passing in the required and optional input fields:

Payment method details

You can provide bank account details in one of two ways:
  1. Direct bank account details:
  2. Using a previously tokenized bank account:

Amount details

When specifying the amount:
  • amountDetails:
    • totalAmount: The total amount of the transfer (e.g., 150.00)
    • currency: Currently only supports USD

Bank account types

When providing direct bank account details, specify:
  • bankAccountType:
    • CHECKING: A checking account for day-to-day transactions
    • SAVINGS: A savings account with potential withdrawal limitations
  • accountOwnerType:
    • CONSUMER: Individual/personal accounts
    • CORPORATE: Business accounts

Channel

For consumer interaction method, specify:
  • channel:
    • ECOMMERCE: Customer interacts through online interface
    • MAIL_ORDER_TELEPHONE_ORDER: Customer interacts through mail, phone, or fax

Entry modes

Indicates how the bank account information was collected:
  • paymentEntryMode:
    • KEYED: Manually entered
    • ON_FILE: Retrieved from stored credentials
Note: For online (ECOMMERCE) or telephone entries, use the channel parameter with values ECOMMERCE or MAIL_ORDER_TELEPHONE_ORDER respectively.

Recurring type

For payment frequency, specify:
  • recurringType:
    • SINGLE: One-time payments with no future transactions expected
    • RECURRING: Subscription payments, recurring bills, or installment payments