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Use the Wise direct debits API to pull funds from a UK or European bank account to fund your transfers.

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for integrating with the direct debit API, from creating a payment instrument to managing transfers and webhooks.

Core concepts

To fund a transfer using direct debit, you need to work with two primary resources: Payment Instruments and Payins.

  • A Payment Instrument is a saved pre-authorised funding source, such as a bank account, from which you can pull funds.
  • A Payin is the request you initiate to pull a specific payment from that instrument.

How Direct Debit payin can fund a transfer

The Direct Debit API uses the paymentInstrumentId and the payinSessionId from a new transfer to create a new Payin. Once the direct debit payin is received, the associated transfer is funded. The funds are never shown as a credit on your balance and are used immediately.

Overview of API requests

Follow these steps to implement direct debits via the API.

  1. Create the Payment Instrument: Send a request to POST /v3/profiles/{{profileId}}/payment-instruments to initiate the authorization flow for a new funding source.
  2. Connect the Payment Instrument: Send a request to POST /v3/profiles/{{profileId}}/payment-instruments/{{paymentInstrumentId}}/manual-confirmation to confirm the payment instrument's details are correct.
    • This leads to a CONNECTED Payment Instrument, which then supports the submission of new Payins
  3. Create a transfer: As with any process to send money on Wise Platform - you must create a quote, and then create a transfer using POST /v1/transfers.
    • Capture the payinSessionId from the response you receive.
  4. Create a Payin: Send a request, including the payinSessionId, to POST /v3/profiles/{{profileId}}/payment-instruments/{{paymentInstrumentId}}/payins.
    • Once this payin is complete, the transfer is funded and your money is sent to the transfer recipient.
  5. Check status: Send a GET request for either a payment instrument or a payin to retrieve its status at any time.

Next steps