Payment Links and Invoices: Taking Cards Without a Website

Payment links and invoices without a website
Payment links and invoices without a website: when a link beats an integration, what the application still needs and what acceptance costs.

Not every business sells through a shop. Consultants agree the scope in email, studios quote in a chat, wholesalers invoice by the order, and none of them wants to build a catalogue just to take a card. A payment link solves exactly that: you send a link or an invoice, the customer pays, and the money settles the same way it would from a checkout — the acceptance side is the same one described under payment processing.

What it does not solve is the review behind it — and that is the part worth being clear about before you start.

Contents

A hosted payment page that exists on its own, without being wired into a site. You create it with an amount, a currency, a description and, usually, an expiry; you send the address by email, messenger or inside an invoice. The customer opens it, pays by card, and you get the same confirmation, the same settlement and the same reporting as any other acceptance.

Three shapes cover most uses: a one-off link for a single agreed amount, a reusable link for a fixed-price service, and an invoice with a pay button for business customers who need a document for their accounting.

  • The price is agreed per customer. Anything quoted rather than listed — consulting, custom manufacturing, events.
  • The site is not ready, and the sales are. A link takes money today while the shop is still being built.
  • The deal happens in a conversation. Messenger, phone, a meeting — the link goes where the conversation is.
  • The amount is large or unusual. A quoted deposit does not belong in a catalogue.
  • You need a second route. When the main checkout is down, a link keeps revenue moving.

Where an integration wins is volume and repetition: a real catalogue, stock, automatic order statuses. The wider comparison of routes is in our piece on how to integrate a payment system on your website.

What sits behind any of them is unpacked in our piece on what a payment gateway is.

«Without a site» does not mean «without a review»

This is the misunderstanding that costs people weeks. The application is the same application: the company, the beneficiaries, the licences where the activity needs them, and — crucially — evidence of what you sell and to whom. No catalogue is required. Something showing the offer is.

In practice that means a simple page describing the service and the price range, or signed contracts and issued invoices, or both. A named seller with a working contact is not optional either. The full list is in our merchant approval checklist.

What it costs

The same economics as any other acceptance: MDR 3%–5% depending on the type of business, 0,50 EUR per transaction, settlement in EUR over SEPA 0,20%, term T+7, rolling reserve 10% for 180 days. A refund costs 50,00 EUR and a chargeback 100,00 EUR. The exact rate is set per merchant and we consider individual solutions for your business.

All published lines sit on the pricing page.

A link has one structural weakness: the customer pays outside a familiar shop, often days after the conversation, so recognition is weaker than anywhere else. Four habits remove most of it.

  • Put the real description in the link. «Invoice 114» means nothing on a statement three weeks later; the service name does.
  • Set an expiry. A link paid two months late is a dispute waiting to happen and, worse, a link forwarded onwards.
  • Send it from an address the customer knows. A payment link arriving from an unfamiliar sender is what phishing looks like, and careful customers will not pay it.
  • Keep the agreement attached to the link. Scope and terms in writing are the evidence that wins a dispute later.

Invoices for business customers

Companies rarely pay a bare link — they need a document with numbers, dates and details for their accounting, and often they pay by transfer rather than card. Both routes should exist side by side: a pay button on the invoice for speed, bank details for finance departments that work only that way. The account receiving those transfers is described under business IBAN.

What to keep an eye on

Links are quick to create and therefore quick to forget. Three things stop that becoming a mess: a naming convention you will still understand later, a regular look at open unpaid links, and a rule about who on the team may create them at all. With two people that sounds excessive; with ten it is the difference between clean reconciliation and a month-end that does not add up. The habit costs nothing to start and is painful to introduce later, once there are hundreds of links nobody can account for.

In short

Payment links are the shortest path from «we agreed» to «it is paid», and they fit quoted, conversational and one-off sales better than any integration does. They do not remove the application, only the catalogue. Describe the service in the link, set an expiry, send from a recognisable address, keep the agreement attached — and the merchant account behind them works exactly as it would behind a shop.