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Payment products

Review and compare payment and account funding solutions

This page provides overviews of Plaid's payment and funding solutions to help you find the right one for your needs.

Auth

Auth is a flexible solution for account and routing number verification that can be used with either a Plaid payments processor partner, or any other processor of your choice, for payments processing.

Transfer

See a live, interactive demo of a Plaid-powered payment flow using Transfer.

Transfer is an end-to-end payment processing solution that performs funds transfers.

Auth and Transfer comparison

Auth provides the most flexibility in terms of supported use cases and integration modes, while Transfer provides a single, end-to-end solution for funds transfers.

AuthTransfer
SummaryAn extensible account verification solution that plugs into your payments infrastructureAn out of the box, end-to-end solution for payments
Verifies account and routing numbersYesYes
Supports non-credential-based flows for account verificationYesYes
Processes ACH transfersNo, requires a processor partner or other processorYes
Provides optional out of the box UI for transfer authorizationNoYes
Checks for ACH return riskWhen used with Balance and/or SignalYes
Checks for account takeover riskWhen used with Identity or Identity MatchWhen used with Identity or Identity Match
Supported countriesUS, CA, UK, EuropeUS
Supports peer-to-peer and marketplace paymentsYesNo
Supported use cases and industriesWider range of supported use cases and industriesMore restricted range of supported use cases and industries
Supported payment railsACH, Same-Day ACH, RTP, Wire, and international payment schemesACH, Same-Day ACH, RTP, Wire (for domestic credit transfers only)
Billing plans availablePay-as-you-go or 12-month contract12-month contract (Custom only)

Balance

Balance gets real-time balances to reduce ACH risk and is typically used with Auth. A balance check engine is built in to Transfer, so Balance is only used with Transfer if using your own custom balance thresholds.

Signal

Signal uses ML modeling to predict the risk of ACH returns with the lowest latency and can be used with either Auth or Transfer.

Balance and Signal comparison

Balance is a simple and affordable solution for predicting closed account and insufficient funds returns (over 75% of returns). Signal is a premium, higher-priced solution that provides greater accuracy and much lower latency in assessing return risk to reduce abandon rates during critical flows in the user funnel, such as checkout and account funding. Signal is recommended for more sophisticated risk management teams willing to configure and tune score thresholds, high-risk use cases, or for asynchronous flows where avoiding user abandons during the risk check is critical.

BalanceSignal
SummaryGet real-time balance to minimize the risk of ACH returnsUse ML modeling to quickly predict the risk of ACH returns
Can predict wide variety of ACH return codesNo, R01 and R02 onlyYes
Supported countriesUS, CA, UK, EuropeUS
p50 latency~ 3 seconds~ 1 second
p95 latency~ 11 seconds< 2 seconds
Billing plans availablePay-as-you-go or 12-month contract12-month contract (Custom only)

Identity

Identity compares account info you hold about your customers to bank account ownership details to reduce account takeover risk. It is commonly used with Auth and Transfer, especially in high risk use cases.

Identity and Identity Match comparison

Identity Match is an optional add-on to Identity that provides greater ease of integration and data minimization. Customers using Identity Match can experience onboarding conversion improvements of 20% or more, without increasing fraud rates, when using Identity Match versus using their own matching algorithms.

IdentityIdentity Match
SummaryGet account holder info on file with bankCompare account holder info with info on file at bank
Avoids the need to build complex string matching logicNoYes
Minimizes PII stored in systemNoYes
Integrates with Identity VerificationNoYes
Works with accounts verified via loginless flows such as Same-Day Micro-deposits or Database InsightsNoSupports ~30% of accounts verified by these flows
Supported countriesUS, CA, UK, EuropeUS, UK, Europe (CA: Early availability only, contact sales)
Billing plans availablePay-as-you-go or 12-month contractPay-as-you-go or 12-month contract

Investments Move

Investments Move (US/CA only) is designed specifically for automating data entry and reducing user friction for brokerage-to-brokerage ACATS and ATON transfers, helping reduce abandon rates and failed transfers for new users moving their assets to your brokerage. Unlike other products on this page, it cannot be used to move money between bank accounts, only to move holdings from one brokerage to another.

Payment Initiation (UK/EU)

Payment Initiation, available only in the UK and EU, enables your users to make real-time payments without manually entering their account number and sort code, or leaving your app.

Virtual Accounts (UK/EU)

Virtual Accounts enables wallet-based features for your payments. Virtual Accounts can be used alongside Payment Initiation to enhance its capabilities with returns, settlement status visibility, and payouts, and can also be used on its own, without Payment Initiation, to add wallet capabilities to apps that accept bank transfers from other sources.

Payment Initiation and Virtual Accounts comparison

Payment InitiationVirtual Accounts
SummaryEnable end users to make real-time, in-app paymentsManage and track payments made by end users
Allows end-users to make payments via LinkYesNo
Supports issuing payoutsNoYes
Supports issuing returnsNoYes, only if used with Payment Initiation
Provides payment status updatesYesYes, only if used with Payment Initiation
Indicates whether a payment has settledNoYes, only if used with Payment Initiation
Supported countriesUK and EuropeUK and Europe
Supports non-Eurozone local paymentsYesYes
Billing plans available12-month contract (Custom only)12-month contract (Custom only)
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