Payment Methods

Getting your money

When you receive a payment through your Paystack business, it gets queued as part of a pending payout to be paid into the payout bank account specified in the Accounts tab of your Settings page.

To receive your payout, you do not need to take any action. It is processed automatically according to our payout schedule without any extra charge.

The payout experience differs based on the specific country and the nature of the payment (local or international), as well as the chosen payout account type.

Adding and updating a payout bank account

Ideally, you should've added a payout bank account during the business activation process, but you can change the account your payout gets sent to from your Dashboard settings by following these steps:

1. Select the Accounts tab under the Dashboard Setting page to view your payout account(s).
2. Click on 'Change' and enter the new account details. This can either be a bank account or a mobile money account, which is available in some countries. Only users with the right permission can view or change a business payout account. 

If your business is a Registered Business, you can only change to a corporate settlement account that matches the verification requirements set for a Registered Business in your country. Similarly, if your business is a Starter Business, you can only change to a personal settlement account whose details match the verification requirements set for a Starter Business in your country.

Eligible payout accounts

The type of bank account we settle payouts into varies by country and business type.

To get your payouts for USD transactions in Kenya, you’ll need to provide a USD bank account domiciled in a Kenyan bank that matches the abovementioned requirements. Similarly, to get your payouts for USD transactions in Nigeria, you must provide a Zenith Bank USD domiciliary account that matches the abovementioned requirements.

Lifetime collections limit

As a Paystack Starter Business, there's a lifetime limit to how much you can receive from customers. You can accept any amount per transaction as long as it's within this limit.

To remove the collections limit for your business, all you need to do is upgrade to a Paystack Registered Business from the Compliance page on your Dashboard.

Viewing your payouts

The Payouts section of the Dashboard contains information about payouts made into the payout account(s) connected to your business.

The payouts summary page

The Payouts Summary page is the first page you see in the Payouts section. Each row represents a payout that has been made into your settlement account. You can see how much was paid, the day it was paid and the status of the payment.

The payouts detail page

Clicking on any payment shows detailed information about the payout:

Amount: This is the total amount sent to you. It's the sum of all the payments made to you minus transaction fees.

Date: This is the date when the payout was made to your bank account.

Activity: This is the summary of any activity that might impact your payouts, such as deductions for refunds or chargebacks. It also includes the number of transactions that make up the payout.

Export CSV: You can export a handy spreadsheet with information about each transaction. This report may include card type, currency, card bank, subaccount, transaction ID, Amount due to your business (you), etc.

Activity table: This lists every transaction that makes up the total amount paid. You can see the email address of the customer and the date and time they paid you. You also see how much they paid and Paystack's fees.

Batches: This shows how many tranches your payouts were divided into.

Subaccount verification

Subaccount verification is a feature we’ve created to help safeguard payouts to your subaccounts. When you create a new subaccount or update an existing subaccount, the first payout will be delayed indefinitely to give you an opportunity to review and verify the subaccount and flag any unusual or suspicious activities.

This verification only happens once so all future payouts will be processed as usual, according to the regular schedule in your country.

How it works

When a payout is scheduled to be processed to a new or updated unverified subaccount, we’ll initiate an indefinite verification delay before the payout is processed to the subaccount.

You’ll be notified via email when a subaccount is created or updated, and you’ll be able to verify one or multiple subaccounts in the Subaccount section of your Paystack Dashboard. Only users with permission to create and manage subaccounts can perform this action. Once you have verified your subaccount, you will receive your payout the next day.

This will only affect the first payout to a new or updated unverified subaccount. Once the subaccount has been verified and a payout has been made, subsequent payouts will be made at the market-specific payout timeline.

Please feel free to reach out to us via email at support@paystack.com or via our contact form if you have any questions. 

Verifying a subaccount

1. Go to the Subaccounts page on your Paystack Dashboard.
2. Select the subaccount you want to verify and click the 'Verify Subaccounts' button, as shown in the image above.

Automated payouts

With our default Paystack payout type — automated payouts —  your funds are processed automatically according to our schedule, hassle-free and with no extra charge. This means that no action from you is required to receive your payout.

For businesses on an automated payout schedule, the payout depends on the country's payout schedule and the currency of the payments:

Payouts are only processed on working days and not weekends or public holidays. For payouts that fall on weekends or public holidays, they are processed on the next working day.

Minimum payout amount

For businesses on an automated payout schedule, there's a minimum payout amount required before we pay your funds into your payout account. This amount depends on the country of your business and the currency of the payments.

If you've collected less than the minimum payout from customers, we’ll hold it for you in your payout balance at no cost. As you receive more payments, we'll continue to add to your payout balance until you cross the minimum threshold, after which we'll automatically pay your account.

For some currencies, there's a minimum amount we can pay out automatically. Funds in that position can either be let to accumulate so that we can pay out to the receiving account, or the business can bear the cost of transferring the funds to their bank account.

Below is a list of the minimum payout amounts for the countries we are active in:

Important to note

The minimum payable amount in Ghana only applies to businesses receiving payouts in bank accounts. Mobile money accounts will continue to receive payouts below GHS 50. You can receive your payouts below the minimum amount. However, we'll charge you a GHS 5 fee for this.

Requesting for payouts below the minimum payout amount

You can request this directly from the payouts page on your Dashboard by following these steps:

1. If you have a payout below our minimum amount, you should see a balance on the right side of the payouts page.
2. Click on the 'Request payout' button to initiate your request.
3. A modal will be displayed to confirm your request and inform you how much we'll charge to process your payout. Once you've decided, click on 'Request'.
4. Your payout will be made to your account per our Payout schedule.

Important to note

Nigerian-based businesses are unable to request payouts below the minimum amount. If you have a payout that is below the minimum amount, your payouts will be held until it exceeds the minimum amount. Once it exceeds the amount, your payouts will be processed.

Manual payouts

Manual payouts provide an alternative payout method for registered businesses on Paystack. Rather than automatically receiving your payout in a Bank or Mobile money account, your payment gets deposited into your Paystack balance.

From this balance, you can initiate transfers to local banks or mobile money accounts within the country your Paystack business is in using our Transfers product. Consider this as a way of topping up your Paystack balance using your payouts.

Notably, manual payouts are not limited to working days alone; they are processed on weekends and public holidays as well. To enable this feature for your business, simply send a request via email at support@paystack.com or via our contact form. 

Important to note

Please note that this feature is currently only available to Registered businesses in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.

Payout on demand

Payout on Demand is a feature that allows businesses to receive a portion of their payout before the next payout run. The payout can be received in either a business's already verified settlement account or the business's Paystack balance.

Payout on Demand means that Paystack businesses can receive their payout immediately for collections made on the same day instead of waiting for the standard payout schedule (i.e. T+1 settlement for Nigerian businesses).

This feature is currently only available to Nigeria-based businesses.

Eligibility criteria

This feature is only available to businesses that have had at least one payout per week for the last four consecutive weeks (1 month).

Payout availability and limits

Only 70% of already processed transactions are available to a business for Payout on Demand. However, there is no limit to the number of times you can withdraw as long as the value of the withdrawal doesn't exceed the amount available for your business.

Pricing

You will be charged 1% of the withdrawal amount for each withdrawal.

Requesting a Payout on Demand

This feature can be requested via the Payout page on the Paystack Dashboard. Click the 'request payout' button on the right side of the Payouts page.

An interface will pop up to show you how much you have available to withdraw and to choose the withdrawal destination (settlement account or Paystack Balance). You can then go ahead to input the desired amount and confirm the withdrawal.