Instant Payments

However widely the needs and preferences of your vendors may vary, one thing is pretty universal: when people are due to receive money, they'd rather get it fast. Routable's Instant Payment rails allow your vendors to receive funds in seconds, without being held up by weekends, cutoff times or holidays. Instant Payments are a powerful differentiator for driving vendor satisfaction and loyalty, especially when dealing with gig workers or other individuals rather than large companies. In fact, the desire to receive funds as quickly as possible is so strong that many vendors are willing to pay a fee themselves in order to expedite the transfer, creating an opportunity for you to monetize your payouts!

Routable supports domestic Instant Payments via two networks: the RTP Network and FedNow. While Instant Payments and ACH payments are both types of account-to-account bank transfers, there are some important differences:

💸 Instant Payments are final and irrevocable. No settlement time is required, so your vendor receives their funds instantaneously.
💸 Instant Payments are available year-round, without being delayed due to weekends or banking holidays, and funds become available in almost real time.

When using Instant Payments, Routable will automatically route your payments via RTP or FedNow, depending on the capabilities of the vendor's pay_to_payment_method. Some banks support the RTP Network, some support FedNow, and some support both or neither. You won’t need to worry about which network is supported; Routable will choose the best available option for you to get the payment processed. (If the vendor’s bank supports both RTP and FedNow, the transfer will be performed over the RTP Network.)

The fee structure for Instant Payments is the same whether the payment is processed over RTP or FedNow.

How to use Instant Payments in the Routable API

Use the real_time_payment delivery_method with type=ach in your Create a Payable call.
The withdraw_from_account in your Create a Payable call must reference the Account ID for your Routable balance account. You can find this ID using the List Accounts endpoint.

Because Instant Payments are final, they cannot be canceled once they are initiated.

The vendor's pay_to_payment_method must be of type: bank.

📘

Not all banks support receiving real-time payments

Not all banks support receiving Instant Payments. Between RTP and FedNow, between 85% and 90% of US bank accounts are covered. To check whether your vendor's bank can accept Instant Payments, call the List Payment Methods endpoint. If the delivery_options array for type ach on a given a PaymentMethod contains real_time_payment, the bank supports receiving Instant Payments.

See below for an example response.

{
  "object":"PaymentMethod",
  "id":"cecf67c0-4671-44fe-9a51-b31cdbee65b1",
  "type":"bank",
  "type_details":{
    "account_number":"XXX3210",
    "account_type":"checking",
    "institution_name":"Citibank",
    "routing_number":"021000021"
  },
  "created_at":"2020-01-24T14:15:22+00:00",
  "delivery_method":"ach",
  "delivery_methods": { 
    "ach": [
       "ach_same_day",
       "ach_next_day",
       "ach_expedited",
       "ach_standard",
       "real_time_payment" // This bank institution supports Instant Payments
     ]
  }, 
  "is_created_by_company":true,
  "is_preferred_by_company":true,
  "is_primary":true,
  "name":"Citibank ***3210",
  "links":{
    "self":"https://api.sandbox.routable.com/v1/companies/ec60d364-9100-4728-a3cb-0f200a8a0f5d/payment-methods/cecf67c0-4671-44fe-9a51-b31cdbee65b1",
    "company":"https://api.sandbox.routable.com/v1/companies/ec60d364-9100-4728-a3cb-0f200a8a0f5d"
  }
}