Sofort | Direct Bank Transfer
Learn how to accept direct bank transfer payments.
Sofort, also known as Pay now with Klarna, is a popular online banking method in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and other countries.
In order to pay with Sofort, customers are redirected to Sofort’s site where they enter their bank login credentials. Upon authentication, Sofort initiates a bank transfer from their bank account.
Although successful authorization indicates a very high likelihood of payment, funds are not guaranteed to your business until they are actually received, which is typically two business days later (but can be up to 14 days later). Once received, payments cannot be reversed except by business-initiated refunds.
| Payment type | Online banking |
| Market | Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland |
| Customer currencies | EUR |
| Processing currencies | EUR |
| Refunds | No |
General flow
POST Request -> to /payment_preauthorize
<- Response (direct, synchronous) with status=2000&errormessage=pending and redirect_url
Customer is redirected to redirect_url (Sofort URL)
<- Callback (asynchronous) with errorcode=0&payment_state=not_credited_yet to notification_url
<- Callback (asynchronous) with errorcode=0&payment_state=credited to notification_url
Step 1. Make a transaction request
From your server, make a POST /payment_preauthorize request.
POST https://sandbox.payabl.com/pay/backoffice/payment_preauthorize
The process flow of this payment system is the same as the 3DSecure transaction procedure. Please note the following exceptions:
- For Sofortüberweisung transactions, we don’t need
param_3dparameter. - The redirect URL is provided in redirect_url, instead of
url_3ds(used in step 2 and step 3) - Only Preauthorize interface should be used for sending transactions.
- Merchant would be notified on the notification URL about the accepted, success and the failed transaction, capture may remain in the accepted state until
creditedornot_creditednotification has been received from the - Please pay special attention to the following pre-authorization interface parameters:
| Parameter | Format | Description |
|---|---|---|
merchantid | 40 characters | Merchant identification number assigned during account creation |
orderid | max. 40 characters | The field orderid is optional and exclusively for the merchants' convenience |
amount | digits only, either no decimals or two decimal places (e.g. 8 or 8.50) | Transaction’s total amount that will be deducted from the customer |
currency | 3 characters. ISO 4217 | The currency field contains the alpha-3 currency code for the transaction. Links to ISO |
payment_method | 17 | payabl. Payment methods IDs |
signature | 40 characters | Signature Calculation |
email | max. 50 characters | Customer email. An RFC 822 compliant email address |
url_success | max. 255 characters starting with http or https | Successful transaction redirect URL |
url_failed | max. 255 characters starting with http or https | Failed transaction redirect URL |
You can see a full list of parameters in Pre-Authorization.
Request example:
merchantid=gateway_test&orderid=Payabl-Test&amount=19.99¤cy=EUR&payment_method=17&language=en&customerip=2.22.75.244&[email protected]&
firstname=John&lastname=Doe&zip=3035&street=Olympion&house=23&city=Limassol&country=CYP&bankcountry=DE&url_return=https://yourshop.example/thank_you&
notification_url=https://yourshop.example/notification&url_success=https://yourshop.example/payment_successful&url_failed=https://yourshop.example/
payment_failed&signature=bafdb2ba214492b60e4f2fbe21c12322837c09ea
Public Sandbox information
Do not use your personal email address, Order ID with sensitive information, real customer details and credit card data in the public Sandbox. For email field you may use [email protected].
Sofort does not support iFrame, full page redirect needs to be done.
Redirection to
url_returndoes not confirm that the transaction is successful. Always check the transaction vianotification_urlor use the diagnose interface to get the final status of the transaction.
Step 2. Handle the redirect
To complete the payment, you need to redirect the customer to the correct URL in the response.
Response example:
transactionid=104579022&transid=104579022&status=2000&errormessage=pending&errmsg=pending&amount=19.99&price=19.99&
currency=EUR&orderid=Payabl-Test&payment_method=17&account_name=&bic=&country=DE&iban=&redirect_url=https%3A%2F%2F
sandbox.payabl.com%2Fpay%2F818b49519a301805ae3561904bdc31fdc35011ad%2Fpayment%2Fredirect_to_bank&user_id=504459
Response fields reference:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
transactionid | payabl. internal transaction id. Please use this transaction id when referring to the transaction in communications with the payabl. team |
transid | The same as transactionid |
status | Transaction error code |
errormessage | Brief explanation of transaction decline reason (empty on success) |
errmsg | The same as errormessage |
amount | Transaction amount |
price | The same as amount |
country | Bank country (if it was stated in the pre-authorization request) |
account_name | Account name (if it was stated in the pre-authorization request) |
iban | Customer IBAN (if it was stated in the pre-authorization request) |
bic | Customer BIC (if it was stated in the pre-authorization request) |
currency | Transaction currency |
orderid | Optional transaction identifier assigned by the merchant |
payment_method | Payment method ID |
redirect_url | URL for customer redirection to finalize the payment (URL encoded) |
user_id | Payment system user identifier |
After the client completed payment on the Sofort side, he will be redirected back to your url_return.
Additionally, you will get a notification to provided notification_url, which should be used to update statuses in your system.
Step 3. Receive the final status
Once the customer completes the payment, we will send a notification with the transaction's final status to the notification_url specified by you.
url_return and notification_url should be passed by you in the Pre-authorization request.
Alternatively, you can communicate a notifciation_url to be used by default to payabl. technical team. By doing so, you won't need to send it in every request.
SofortÜberweisung notifications contain an additional notification parameter which is payment_state, which can contain the following values:
not_credited_yet: Capture - Accepted.credited: Capture - Successful.not_credited: Capture - Failed.
Each state change would trigger a notification to the notification URL, notification URL is the URL that was provided when the merchant account was created.
Notification example - Accepted Capture:
errorcode=0&amount=19.99&transactionid=104579022&type=capture&security=3731741fccfce98388f5463d3be1bd64edd4dbcc590c615d5f1da2270d609360&
payment_state=not_credited_yet×tamp=1660130655&orderid=Payabl-Test&payment_method=17&errormessage=
Notification example - Successful Capture:
timestamp=1660131006&errormessage=&payment_method=17&orderid=Payabl-Test&type=capture&security=059261299e5347a306cf4d4e012d2d17b1b3ac8b3e404b5d7a89fab75ce9fbae&
payment_state=credited&errorcode=0&transactionid=104579022&amount=19.99
Notification fields reference:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
transactionid | payabl. internal transaction id. Please use this transaction id when referring to the transaction in communications with the payabl. team |
type | Transaction type |
errorcode | Transaction error code (0 for success) |
errormessage | Brief explanation of transaction decline reason (empty on success) |
amount | Transaction amount |
orderid | Optional transaction identifier given by the merchant |
security | Signature to verify the authenticity of the notification. You can find more information here |
timestamp | Notification timestamp |
payment_state | Transaction acceptance state as described above |
Additional Customer details can be added to both callbacks. Please contact Tech support to enable them:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
bank_country | Customer bank country |
bic | Customer bank BIC |
account_number | Customer account number |
account_holder | Account holder name |
Notification example - Accepted Capture (additional parameters):
bank_number=70440&account_number=LTXXXXXXXXXXXXXX4024&payment_state=not_credited_yet&bank_name=SEB&errormessage=&type=capture&
transactionid=104579023&account_holder=Muster+Mann&bank_country=LITHUANIA×tamp=1605788760&security=19667fb6d9d2f3c
8457e29d949f72319a9986b88b0be47050d9fc49f746d279b&orderid=Payabl-Test&errorcode=0
Notification example - Successful Capture (additional parameters):
bank_number=70440&account_number=LTXXXXXXXXXXXXXX4024&payment_state=credited&bank_name=SEB&errormessage=&type=capture&
transactionid=104579023&account_holder=Muster+Mann&bank_country=LITHUANIA×tamp=1605788760&security=19667fb6d9d2f3c
8457e29d949f72319a9986b88b0be47050d9fc49f746d279b&orderid=Payabl-Test&errorcode=0
When the customer finished or canceled the payment, he will be redirected back to url_return, provided by you in the initial request to payment_preauthorize. After that, you will receive a notification, posted to notification_url, with the final transaction status, which you suppose to use to update your system.
Notification URL can be configured by our tech support team in your account on our side,
or you can send it as a parameternotification_urlin the initial request topayment_preauthorize.
In case 15 days pass and payabl. didn't receive any funds from an issuer, the transaction will be failed automatically. You will receive a notification update.
Our Technical Support team is there to help you:
Email: [email protected]
Available Monday – Friday between 09:00 and 17:00 CET/CEST
Updated about 1 year ago