A customer orders by phone, wants to pay immediately, and you have neither an online shop nor a terminal to hand them. You send a link, she pays, and it is done in two minutes. The payment link is the simplest tool in distance selling, and its simplicity is exactly what makes you forget that it places you in the distance-selling regime, with everything that implies for evidence and liability.
The essentials in five points
- A payment link replaces the online shop without its cost or its setup time.
- It is legally a distance sale, even where the order was taken by voice over the telephone.
- Cardholder authentication remains essential: without it, the fraud is charged to you.
- The link must carry a short expiry and a fixed amount, never one the customer can change.
- Proof of the order has to be built separately: the link proves payment, not what was ordered.
1. How it actually works
The principle is short: you create a payment request for a set amount with your provider, it generates a unique address, and you send it to the customer through whichever channel you choose. Everything else happens out of your sight.
- You enter the amount, the order reference and a validity period.
- The provider creates a payment page hosted on its own systems, at a unique address.
- You send that link by message, by email, or from an existing conversation.
- The customer pays on that page and authenticates with their own bank.
- You receive the confirmation, and the funds follow the usual card settlement cycle.
The important point is that you never see the card number: it is entered on the provider’s page, not in your conversation. Asking a customer to dictate their card by message is the exact opposite of this logic, and leaves you holding data you have no right to keep.
2. What the link settles, and what it does not
A paid link is proof of payment, and nothing more. Distance disputes rarely concern whether payment happened: they concern what had been ordered.
| What the link proves | What must be proved elsewhere | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T | h | a | t | a | n | a | m | o | u | n | t | w | a | s | p | a | i | d | |||||||||||||
| W | h | a | t | e | x | a | c | t | l | y | t | h | a | t | a | m | o | u | n | t | c | o | v | e | r | e | d |
The practical consequence comes down to one habit: before sending the link, send the customer a written summary of their order, however brief, in the same conversation. Two lines are enough, and they are the only record of what was agreed.
That summary is also what will serve you if the payment is disputed later, a scenario set out in our guide to disputed card payments.
3. The rules to set before the first link
Payment links are simple to use and easy to misuse. A few rules fixed once will spare you some unpleasant situations.
- Set a short validity, a matter of days: a link left hanging is a link you forget you sent.
- Fix the amount: a link whose sum the customer chooses invites misunderstandings and unwanted part-payments.
- Create one link per order, never a reusable link sent to several customers.
- Never send a link at the initiative of a stranger who contacts you: the request must come from an order you recorded.
- Keep the link reference with the order, so the two can be matched effortlessly weeks later.
The fourth rule deserves particular attention: a legitimate payment link can be turned around, with a fake seller sending a link to a buyer. Your customers must be able to recognise that the link genuinely comes from you, which means always sending it through the same channel.
Never ask for a card number by message
This is the bad habit payment links exist to remove. A number dictated by phone or written into a conversation leaves you holding data you have no right to keep, with no cardholder authentication and no protection in a dispute. The link exists precisely so that entry happens somewhere else.
4. Where this sits in your till
A sale collected by link is still a sale: it must be recorded like the others, with its amount, its detail and its payment method. BelloPOS lets you enter it and attach it to the customer, so that it appears in your turnover and in that customer’s history.
BelloPOS does not generate links and does not connect to your payment provider: creating the link and tracking the settlement happen there. Recording it in the till is therefore a separate step, to be done when the confirmation arrives, failing which distance sales are missing from the day’s total.
Mistakes to avoid
- Sending a link with no written summary — The link proves payment but not the order. Two lines sent before beat a discussion afterwards.
- Reusing the same link for several customers — Reconciliation becomes impossible and a customer can pay an order that is not theirs.
- Leaving a validity of several weeks — An old link is paid at the wrong moment, sometimes after the order was cancelled or refunded another way.
- Forgetting to record the sale in the till — The money exists on the bank side but not in turnover, and the gap surfaces at month end with no explanation.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a website to use a payment link?
No, that is the whole point: the link goes to a page hosted by your provider. You can sell remotely without having an online shop.
Does the customer have to create an account to pay?
No. They open the page, enter their card and authenticate with their bank. The journey is that of an ordinary online payment.
Can I send a link for a deposit?
Yes, provided the written summary makes clear that it is a deposit and states the total against which it is set off.
Is the commission the same as in store?
Not necessarily: remote operations are often priced differently from card-present ones. Check that point in your contract before making it your default.
What to take away
Payment links open up distance selling without an online shop, on three conditions: a written summary sent before the link, a fixed amount with a short expiry, and the sale recorded in the till when confirmation arrives. Never ask for a card number by message.
Sources
The figures and rules quoted above come from these pages, read on the date given in the article.
- Bank Al-Maghrib, banking supervision and customer protection, read 8 September 2026
- Ministry of Justice, Commercial Code, read 30 August 2026
Your remote sales in the same total as the rest
BelloPOS records every sale with its payment method and its customer, whether the money came in at the counter or through a payment link.
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