Overview

Instant Disbursements is Astra's Push-to-Card / Account-to-Card solution that enables your Users to create instant “push” payments to an external debit Card, with real time settlement at a scalable cost structure. Additionally, you can optionally apply programmatic fees to the payment to create a new source of revenue for your business. Instant Disbursements can be me-to-me or peer-to-peer. With just a couple of taps in your product, a User can authorize your product for faster payments, link their Debit Card, and initiate an instant disbursement / withdrawal.

The technical implementation involves a simple SDK and or just a few API requests to start initiating payments. Behind the scenes, the Astra platform processes an Original Credit Transaction (OCT) directly onto the User's Debit Card with immediate availability of funds. On a daily basis, Astra will top up your reserve by debiting funds from your externally connected Corporate Bank Account. The amount Astra debits is based on the sum of all transfers created the prior business day, hence the name Net Settlement Mode.

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Your program is responsible and liable for ensuring that the account which is to be ACH debited has sufficient funds. Several methods are commonly employed, such as placing a hold on the funds, book transferring the funds into a holding account, or pre-funding an FBO Account. However your program chooses to manage this is to your discretion. Negative balances due to ACH Returns will be automatically debited from your Reserve Account.

Step 01: Create a Business User

As a first step to create a business User for your program, fill out the Business Profile in your Astra Dashboard here: https://dashboard-sandbox.astra.finance/settings/business-profile. If you are doing this in Sandbox, please be sure to use fake business information. Once submitted your Business Profile ID will appear at the top of the Business Profile section (see image below)

Using this Business Profile, follow the steps outlined in the following guide to create a Business User and to obtain the Business User's Tokens: https://docs.astra.finance/docs/onboarding-business-users#/option-b-astras-business-profile-object

Step 02: Connect a Business Account or pre-fund an FBO Account

Astra's Instant Disbursement Net Debit solution requires a source bank account which will be debited daily for the sum of all transfers created the prior business day. We provide two options to achieve this:

Connect a Corporate Bank Account to your Business User by way of the following endpoint .
Pre-fund an FBO+ Settlement Account. Through this method, Astra will create an FBO+ Settlement account on your behalf, sponsored by our partner bank. This will require your program operate on a "Good Funds" model and to fund this account via ACH or Wire.

Whichever method your program chooses to use, this account will be used as the source of funds in the payload for the Account-to-Card Routine request.

Step 03: Create Users, Authorize, and Connect External Debit Cards

Before an Instant Disbursement Transfer can be initiated, the User (recipient) will need to be registered, Authorized, and have connected an external debit Card to send funds to. Register a User on our platform by way of the Create UserIntent endpoint.

Once created, send the User into our SDK (or through API) to Authorize Astra and your application to make money movements on their behalf. Once Authorized, the User will be prompted to connect a Debit Card through our PCI Compliant card form. You may also prompt the User to connect a Debit Card through your own Debit Card form. At this point, the User is set up and ready to receive funds to their Debit Card.

Step 04: Account-to-Card Routine Request

The following is a sample request for the Account-to-Card endpoint for Net Settlement Mode (Option 02). Requests to this endpoint may include an optional Idempotency-Key header. The header value can be any string the caller wants to use for idempotency, but needs to be less than or equal to 128 characters. Astra suggests UUID4.

Example:  
POST /v1/routines/account-to-card
\{
"name": "My Account to Card Routine 12.99", "amount": 12.99,
"source": {
"id": "astra_account_id_1234" (your business bank account) },
"destination": {
"id": "astra_card_id_4567", (the recipient’s debit Card) "user_id": astra_user_id (the recipient)
},
"debit_fee_percent": 5, "settlement_mode": “net_debit”
}