Sending a Real-Time Payment

Real-Time Payments can be sent at any time during the day and funds will settle instantly. However, its important to remember that Real-Time Payments are only reachable at ~65% of US financial institutions. You can use the Routing Numbers API to confirm whether an institution supports Real-Time Payments.

Lifecycle

Status	Description
pending_approval	The transfer requires approval from a member of your team.
pending_reviewing	The transfer is pending review by Increase.
pending_submission	The transfer is queued to be submitted to The Clearing House.
submitted	The transfer has been submitted and is pending a response from The Clearing House.
complete	The transfer has been sent successfully and funds have settled.
canceled	The transfer has been canceled.
rejected	The transfer was rejected by Increase, the network, or the recipient’s bank.
requires_attention	The transfer requires attention from an Increase operator.

Sending a Real-Time Payment with Increase

Originating a Real-Time Payment via the Increase API kicks off several steps involving you, Increase, The Clearing House, and the receiving bank.

1. You make a POST /real_time_payments_transfers call with the details of how much you’d like to send and data about the recipient. A Real Time Payments Transfer is created with a status of pending_reviewing.
2. A Pending Transaction is immediately created for the full amount of the transfer in order to hold funds.
3. Once the transfer passes through internal reviews, the status updates to pending_submission.
4. When the file is submitted to The Clearing House (usually within seconds), Increase updates the Real-Time Payment Transfer object with its submission details and the status is updated to submitted.
5. The Clearing House forwards transfer details to the receiving bank. The receiving bank responds with an acknowledgement. Once the acknowledgement is received, funds are settled instantly and the Real-Time Payment Transfer object status updates to complete.
6. A Transaction is immediately created for the full amount of the transfer and funds are removed from your Account. The Pending Transaction is marked as complete.
7. If the network is unable to complete the transfer, it responds with a rejection and the transfer status updates to rejected. The Pending Transaction is marked as complete and no additional Transactions are created on your Account.

The entire process usually completes within seconds.

Approvals

For transfers that require approval from another team member, the Real-Time Payment Transfer is created with a status of pending_approval and a Pending Transaction is created to hold funds.

If the transfer is approved, the Real-Time Payment Transfer object updates with its approval details, the status is changed to pending_reviewing, and things progress normally.

If the transfer is not approved, the Real-Time Payment Transfer object updates with its cancellation details and the status is changed to canceled. The Pending Transaction status updates to complete, no Transfer information is submitted, and no additional Transactions are created.

Reviews and rejections

Occasionally a Real-Time Payment Transfer will need to be manually reviewed by an Increase operator. When this occurs the Real-Time Payment Transfer object status will be set to pending_reviewing.

Once reviewed, the status changes to pending_submission and things progress normally. However, rarely a Real-Time Payment Transfer may be rejected by Increase. When this occurs the Real-Time Payment Transfer object status updates to rejected, no Transfer information is submitted to the network, and no additional Transactions are created.