Payment links¶
A payment link is a URL you send the customer. They enter their own payment details on the page it opens, and ChargeOn records the result against the record the link came from. Your team never sees or types a card number.
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Send a payment link | Generating a link and getting it to the customer |
| Collect automatically | Issuing links on a schedule and chasing unpaid ones |
| Cancel a payment link | Stopping a link being used before it is paid |
Why links are often the right answer¶
Because your team never touches the card data, a payment link removes the most common source of payment risk in a business process: a person reading a card number aloud, or typing it into the wrong field. If a payment can be collected by link, collect it by link.
Links are not just instant and scheduled — they do recurring too
A payment link can collect an instant payment, a scheduled payment on a future date, or every cycle of a recurring payment. If you set up a recurring plan without a saved card, ChargeOn sends a fresh link for each charge automatically — this is a first-class way to run recurring billing, not a fallback.
What every link has¶
- A QR code, if your administrator has turned the feature on globally. It always points at the same link, so it stays valid for as long as the link does.
- A working retry. If a payment attempt fails, the same link keeps working — the customer can try again without you sending a new one.
- A real expiry tied to what is actually owed, not a fixed countdown. A link stops working once the underlying amount is paid, or you explicitly cancel it — see Cancel a payment link. Right up until then, an old-looking link that is still owed will keep working for the customer, refreshed to whatever is currently due.
For which of the 20 gateways support which kind of link, see the gateway reference.