Payments

Understand payment methods, channels, and how to collect payments through your Credo dashboard.

Credo supports multiple payment channels so your customers can pay however they prefer. This guide covers the available methods, how they work from the dashboard perspective, and when to use each one.

Payment channels

Channel	How it works	Settlement time
Card	Customer enters card details (Visa, Mastercard, Verve) on the checkout page. Supports 3D Secure and OTP verification.	Standard
Bank Transfer	A virtual account number is generated. Customer transfers from their bank app.	Standard

Not all channels are available for every currency or transaction amount. The checkout page automatically shows only the channels that apply.

Collecting payments from the dashboard

You don't need to write code to accept payments. The Credo dashboard offers two no-code tools:

Payment links

Create a shareable URL that opens a Credo-hosted payment page. Customers click the link and pay.

Go to Payment Links in your dashboard
Click Create Payment Link
Set the amount, description, and optional customer fields
Share the link via email, SMS, social media, or embed it on your website

See the Payment Links guide for detailed setup.

Invoices

Send professional invoices with a built-in pay button. Customers receive an email with the invoice and can pay directly.

Go to Invoicing in your dashboard
Click Create Invoice
Add line items, tax, and customer details
Send - the customer receives an email with a payment link

See the Invoicing guide for details.

Collecting payments via API

For developers building custom checkout flows, Credo provides a transaction API. The typical flow:

Initialize the transaction

Send a POST request to /transaction/initialize with the amount, customer email, and payment channels.

Redirect to checkout

Send the customer to the authorizationUrl from the response. Credo handles card entry, OTP, and bank transfer instructions.

Verify the result

After payment, verify the transaction server-side using /transaction/{transRef}/verify.

See Accept Payments for the full developer guide.

Choosing payment channels

You can control which channels appear on the checkout page by specifying the channel array when initializing a transaction:

{
  "channel": ["CARD", "BANK"]
}

If you omit channel, all available methods are shown.

When to restrict channels

Scenario	Recommended channels
Online store	`Card`, `bank`
Subscription billing	`Card` only (for recurring)
Offline-friendly customers	`USSD`, `PAYOUTLET`
Maximum conversion	All (omit the field)

Transaction fees

Credo charges a processing fee per transaction. The bearer field determines who pays:

Value	Who pays	Effect
`0`	Customer	Fee added on top of the amount
`1`	Merchant	Fee deducted from the amount

For a NGN 5,000 transaction with a NGN 100 fee:

Customer pays: NGN 5,100
You receive: NGN 5,000

For a NGN 5,000 transaction with a NGN 100 fee:

Customer pays: NGN 5,000
You receive: NGN 4,900

Tracking payments

All transactions appear in the Transactions section of your dashboard. For each transaction you can see:

Status - successful, failed, pending, etc.
Amount - what the customer paid, fees, and your settlement amount
Customer - email, name, and phone number
References - transaction reference, business reference, and CRN
Date - when the transaction occurred
Channel - which payment method was used

Filtering and search

Use the dashboard filters to find specific transactions:

Filter by status, date range, channel, or amount range
Search by transaction reference, email, or CRN
Export filtered results as CSV or PDF

Currencies

Credo currently supports:

Currency	Code	Lowest unit
Nigerian Naira	`NGN`	Kobo (1 NGN = 100 kobo)
US Dollar	`USD`	Cents (1 USD = 100 cents)

All amounts in the API are expressed in the lowest currency unit. To charge NGN 1,500, send 150000.