What is a payment link?

A payment link is an ordinary web address, like paytide.co.uk/your-name, that leads to a page where someone can pay you. You send it the way you would send any other link: in a text, a WhatsApp message, an email or your Instagram bio. The person who owes you money taps it, enters an amount (or sees the amount you have already set), and pays by card.

The point is that you do not need anything else. There is no card reader to buy, no online shop to build and no app for your customer to install. For a freelancer, a tradesperson or anyone who gets paid by people they have already met or spoken to, a link does the same job as a till, at the moment the customer is ready to pay. You can keep one link for everything, or make separate links for a fixed price, an invoice or a donation page.

When your customer opens a Paytide link they see your name, and whatever you have written about yourself, above a short form. They choose or confirm the amount, can add a note, and press pay. From there they are taken to a checkout page hosted by Stripe, the payments company that processes the card.

On Stripe's page they enter their card details, or use Apple Pay or Google Pay where their device and your Stripe account support it. Stripe checks the card, runs its fraud screening and asks the bank for extra verification when needed. Once the payment goes through, the customer sees a confirmation and a card payment shows in your dashboard straight away (a Direct Debit shows as pending until it clears). Stripe then pays the money into your bank account on your payout schedule. Nobody has to create an account to pay you.

They solve slightly different problems, and many people use all three.

• A payment link suits quick, informal payments: a haircut, a lesson, a job just finished. The customer pays by card there and then.
• An invoice suits business clients who need a document with your details, an invoice number and a due date. A Paytide invoice is a PDF with its own one-time payment link, so the client can still pay by card.
• A bank transfer costs nothing to receive, but the customer has to type your sort code and account number correctly, and you have to match the payment to the job yourself.

Card payments cost a fee, bank transfers don't. What the fee buys you is money that arrives while the customer is still in front of you.

For your customer, paying through a link is as safe as paying on any well-known website, because the card is taken by Stripe rather than by you. Card details go straight to Stripe's checkout page. Paytide never sees them and never stores them, and neither do you.

For you, the money is also handled by Stripe. Paytide is software: it does not hold your funds. Payments land in your own Stripe account and are paid out from there to your bank. Stripe checks your identity once when you connect, as the law requires of anyone taking card payments.

The usual common sense applies to links in general. Customers should check that a link goes where they expect before paying, which is one reason a Paytide link carries your own name rather than a string of random characters.

It depends on the provider. With Paytide there is no monthly fee and no setup cost. You pay two fees, only when someone pays you: Paytide takes 1% of each payment, with a 20p minimum, and Stripe takes its card-processing fee on top. Stripe's standard rate for UK cards is 1.5% + 20p; premium and non-UK cards cost more.

That makes Paytide dearer than using Stripe on its own. The extra 1% pays for the parts Stripe does not give you out of the box: your own name as the link, invoices with an automatic overdue reminder, a printable QR code and a simple dashboard. Work out your own numbers on the fees calculator, or see how it compares on the PayPal.me alternatives page.

Anywhere a link can go. The most common places are:

• a text or WhatsApp message when a job is done;
• your Instagram, TikTok or Facebook bio;
• the bottom of your emails, next to your phone number;
• an invoice or a quote, so clients can pay in one tap;
• a printed QR code on a market stall, a van, a salon mirror or a business card, so people can pay with their phone camera.

Because the link carries your name, it is easy to say out loud and easy for a customer to recognise when it turns up in their messages. For a fuller walk-through of chasing and collecting money, read how to get paid as a freelancer in the UK.