A Payment Link Is a Checkout Page in a URL, and You Pay the Fee

What a payment link actually is

A payment link is a URL that opens a checkout page hosted by a payment processor such as Stripe, Square, or PayPal. The amount and description are already filled in. Your client taps it, enters a card or bank details, and the money lands in your processor account. That is the whole idea.

Here is an example. Maria is a wedding photographer charging $2,500. She wants a $750 deposit to hold the date. She creates a link in her processor for "Deposit, Lopez wedding, June 14" at $750 and pastes it into her booking email. The couple pays from their phone in about a minute. Nobody reads a card number over the phone, and no check sits in the mail.

The link itself is just a web address. It does not create a legal debt, it does not set payment terms, and it does not replace the paperwork. The debt comes from the quote or contract your client accepted. The terms come from your invoice. The link is only the door the money walks through. If you want the paperwork side done right, see what a small business invoice should include and how to send a quote that gets accepted.

One misconception is worth clearing up. A payment link does not make people pay faster just by existing. It removes friction for clients who already intend to pay. A client who is dragging their feet will ignore a link the same way they ignore a mailing address. You still need due dates and follow-ups.

Standalone link or invoice link: the difference that bites later

Processors offer two kinds of link, and most explainers treat them as the same thing. They are not.

A standalone payment link is a product page. Stripe's Payment Links, for example, are reusable by default. Anyone with the URL can pay it, as many times as they like. That suits a fixed-price item, such as a $150 consultation or a $40 class drop-in. It works badly for a one-off job. If Maria reuses her $750 deposit link for three couples, she gets three $750 payments. Then she has to work out from names and emails which wedding each one belongs to. If a client clicks twice, she gets paid twice and has to refund.

An invoice payment link is the "Pay this invoice" button on a hosted invoice page. It is tied to one invoice for one customer. When it is paid, the invoice is marked paid automatically, and it cannot be paid again. This is the version you want for anything with a customer name on it: a deposit, a final balance, a repair bill.

A simple rule: if the price is the same for everyone, a standalone link is fine. If the price belongs to one specific client, send an invoice with a pay button. Do not send a bare link with a dollar figure in a text.

What a payment link costs on a real job

The link is free to create. The fee is charged when someone pays, and it comes out of your money, not the client's. Fees depend on which payment method the client picks, so offering more than one method changes your cost.

The table below uses standard US online rates listed on each company's pricing page at the time of writing. Processors change these, so check the current page before you rely on them. The formula is the part that lasts: amount × percentage + fixed fee.

The gap widens as the job gets bigger. On a $2,500 balance, a bank payment costs $5 and a card payment costs $72.80 through the same processor. That is $67.80 kept, per job, just by turning on the bank option. For a contractor billing $8,000, a card costs $232.30 and a bank payment still costs $5.

Bank payments have tradeoffs. They take several business days to clear, and some clients won't bother entering routing details. Small charges, like a $40 class, are cheaper by card than you might think, about $1.46 at 2.9% + 30¢. So bank options mostly matter above a few hundred dollars.

Some businesses pass the card fee to the client as a surcharge. Card network rules and some state laws limit this, including disclosure requirements and caps. Read your processor's surcharging guidance before adding a line for it. If you charge for late payment instead, work out the late fee in dollars first.

How to send one so clients trust it

Fake payment links are a common scam, and your clients have been warned about them. The FTC tells consumers not to click payment links in messages they weren't expecting. A link from you can look exactly like a phishing attempt if you send it badly.

• Send it from the address or number they already know. Don't send it from a new email or an unknown phone.
• Put it next to the invoice number and the job. For example: "Invoice 1042, brake job on the 2019 Civic, $684." A bare link with no context is what scammers send.
• Tell them in advance. At booking, say "You'll get an invoice from me with a pay button." Then the link isn't a surprise.
• Never ask for a card number in reply. The whole point of the link is that card details go to the processor, not to you.

If a client says they never received the link or the link didn't work, resend the invoice rather than a fresh standalone link. That keeps one record per job and avoids paying twice. For what to write on the invoice itself, the four invoice examples written out line by line show the wording.

Questions people also ask

Sources

• Stripe: Payment Links
• Stripe: Pricing
• Square: Pricing
• PayPal: Business fees
• FTC: How to recognize and avoid phishing scams