Payment methods

Take the method your customer already has.

A checkout that only offers cards loses most of a market where cards are the exception. IdealBox carries mobile money, cards, wallets and bank transfers behind one request.

Catalogue

What we can move.

Each method resolves through one of six flows. Your integration branches on the flow, never on the provider — which is why enabling a new one costs you nothing.

MTN MoMo

Mobile money

Flow: Push to the handset
Currencies: XAF · XOF
Max per payment: 1,000,000 XAF

Orange Money

Mobile money

Flow: Push to the handset
Currencies: XAF · XOF
Max per payment: 1,000,000 XAF

Coming soon

Wave

Mobile money

Flow: Redirect and return
Currencies: XOF
Max per payment: 1,000,000 XOF

Coming soon

M-Pesa

Mobile money

Flow: One-time code
Currencies: KES · TZS
Max per payment: 250,000 KES

Coming soon

Airtel Money

Mobile money

Flow: Push to the handset
Currencies: KES · UGX · TZS …

Coming soon

Moov Money

Mobile money

Flow: Push to the handset
Currencies: XOF

Coming soon

Vodafone Cash

Mobile money

Flow: One-time code
Currencies: GHS

Visa · Mastercard · Amex

Card

Flow: Redirect and return
Currencies: USD · EUR · GBP …

Apple Pay

Wallet

Flow: Nothing more needed
Currencies: USD · EUR · GBP

Google Pay

Wallet

Flow: Nothing more needed
Currencies: USD · EUR · GBP

Coming soon

PayPal

Wallet

Flow: Redirect and return
Currencies: USD · EUR · GBP

Coming soon

Bank transfer

Flow: Account and reference
Currencies: XAF · XOF · GHS …

Flows

Six ways a customer completes a payment.

The response to a payment tells you which of these you are in, and what to render. That is the entire client-side contract.

DEVICE_PUSH

Push to the handset

The customer gets a USSD or in-app prompt and enters their PIN. Nothing happens in the browser — most mobile money runs this way.

REDIRECT

Redirect and return

The browser goes to the provider — a 3-D Secure challenge, a Wave page, a PayPal login — and comes back to your return URL.

OTP_CHALLENGE

One-time code

The provider issues a code the customer reads out. You collect it and submit it to confirm the payment.

DIRECT

Nothing more needed

The instrument is already authorised — a tokenised card, an Apple Pay or Google Pay token. It resolves on the first call.

QR_DISPLAY

Show a QR code

Render the code we return and the customer scans it with their wallet app. Useful in person and on desktop.

VOUCHER_INSTRUCTION

Account and reference

Show the customer where to send funds and the reference to quote. We match the inbound transfer and resolve the payment.

Coverage

Country, currency, method, settlement.

Country is data here, not a code change. Adding a market is rows in a capability table — which is why this list grows without an API version.

Settlement delays are the default for each corridor and can be shortened on a negotiated plan. Per-payment limits are set by the provider, not by us.
Country	Currency	Methods	Settlement
Cameroon	XAF	MTN MoMo · Orange Money · Visa · Mastercard · Amex	T+1
Côte d'Ivoire	XOF	Orange Money · MTN MoMo · Wave · Moov Money · Visa · Mastercard · Amex	T+1
Senegal	XOF	Orange Money · Wave · Visa · Mastercard · Amex	T+1
Ghana	GHS	MTN MoMo · Vodafone Cash · Visa · Mastercard · Amex	T+1
Kenya	KES	M-Pesa · Airtel Money · Visa · Mastercard · Amex	T+1
Benin	XOF	MTN MoMo · Moov Money · Visa · Mastercard · Amex	T+2
Burkina Faso	XOF	Orange Money · Moov Money · Wave · Visa · Mastercard · Amex	T+2
Mali	XOF	Orange Money · Moov Money · Wave · Visa · Mastercard · Amex	T+2
Togo	XOF	Moov Money · Visa · Mastercard · Amex	T+2
Uganda	UGX	MTN MoMo · Airtel Money · Visa · Mastercard · Amex	T+2
Rwanda	RWF	MTN MoMo · Airtel Money · Visa · Mastercard · Amex	T+2
Tanzania	TZS	M-Pesa · Airtel Money · Visa · Mastercard · Amex	T+2
Worldwide	USD	Visa · Mastercard · Amex · Apple Pay · Google Pay · PayPal	T+2

Ask what will work before you render anything

One call returns exactly the methods that can take this amount, in this currency, in this country — including limits and whether refunds are supported. Build your checkout from the response and a newly enabled provider shows up without a deploy.

curl "https://api.idealbox.org/v1/providers?country=CM&currency=XAF&amount=500000" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ib_sk_test_4f2a9c1e8b7d6053"

Directions

Money in, money out, money held.

Collections and disbursements are both first-class from day one. Your balance is a liability on our ledger, and you decide when to withdraw it.

Collect

Charge a customer on any supported method. Full and partial refunds where the provider allows them.

Disburse

Send money to a third party — a driver, a seller, a supplier — over mobile money or a bank transfer.

Withdraw

Move your own cleared balance to a bank or mobile money account. Per-wallet withdrawal blocking when you need it.

Payment links

One-time or reusable hosted links, for when you would rather not build a checkout at all.

// Coming with phase 5. The envelope is the same in reverse: an amount in
// minor units, a currency, and a destination the corridor supports.
const payout = await idealbox.disbursements.create({
  amount: '250000',
  currency: 'XOF',
  reference: 'driver-payout-88',
  destination: {
    methodType: 'MOBILE_MONEY',
    country: 'SN',
    phoneNumber: '+221770000000',
  },
});

Start in the test environment. Move money when you are ready.

Create an account, take a test key and run a payment end to end in minutes. Going live is a different key, not a different integration.

Create an account Read the docs

No setup fee. No monthly minimum on Start.