Pay by Link UK
Send a Payment Link in Seconds
Take card payments by email or SMS, with no website, no card reader, and no card details read aloud over the phone. FCA-regulated, PCI DSS Level 1, next-working-day settlement.
How Pay by Link works
From "we need to take payment" to "money received" in under a minute — without a website, a terminal, or storing a single card number yourself.
Generate a link
Set the amount, an optional reference, and an expiry. Done in under 10 seconds from the Monek Portal or via our REST API.
Send it by email or SMS
Deliver from inside the dashboard. SMS click-through is roughly 5× higher than email for short-form payments under £500.
Customer pays in a few taps
They land on a hosted checkout branded to your business, secured by 3-D Secure 2. Funds settle to your UK bank the next working day.
Two delivery channels, no add-on fees
Email and SMS, both built into the Portal. No third-party messaging integration, no separate billing.
Send a branded email with the payment link inline. Best for invoices, quotes, and any case where you want a clear audit trail of what was sent and when.
Typical use: professional services invoicing, B2B billing, deposit requests.
SMS
Send a short text with the link. Highest open and click-through rates — most payments under £500 close fastest by SMS, often within minutes.
Typical use: phone orders mid-call, tradespeople invoicing from the van, chasing slow payers.
No WhatsApp or social-media delivery — those routes carry compliance and brand-impersonation risk we are not willing to expose merchants to.
Cards your customers actually use
Every Pay by Link checkout accepts the full UK card mix plus mobile wallets — no separate setup, no extra Apple Developer or Google Pay merchant configuration.
Where UK merchants use Pay by Link
Six common scenarios. If yours isn't on the list and you want a second opinion on whether Pay by Link fits, talk to our team.
Phone orders and bookings
Instead of taking card details verbally, send the link mid-call. The customer pays before they hang up — no PCI exposure on your side.
Tradespeople invoicing on completion
Finish the job, send the link by SMS from the van, get paid same day. Settled to your UK bank the next working day.
Professional services
Attach a Pay by Link to your PDF invoice so clients can pay without bank-transfer admin or chasing reminders.
Deposits and pre-authorisations
Restaurants, hotels, salons and events can secure a booking with a small upfront charge before the customer arrives.
Chasing late payments
When an emailed invoice has gone unpaid, switching to a click-to-pay link removes the friction of 'let me just find my card reader'.
One-off pricing or custom quotes
Bespoke order, custom quote, or rebill — generate a single-use link for exactly the amount, with the reference attached.
Why merchants pick Monek's Pay by Link
The six things to check before you commit to any Pay by Link provider — and how we stack up on each.
No per-link fee
Some legacy providers charge £0.10–£0.50 per Pay by Link in addition to the processing fee, whether the customer pays or not. Monek bundles Pay by Link into the standard processing rate — generate as many as you need.
Branded checkout, your domain
Your logo, your colours, your domain (or a clearly co-branded one). A generic 'PayHubXYZ' checkout page tanks conversion; ours stays on-brand end-to-end.
Real-time link tracking
See when the customer opened the link, when they entered card details, and when the payment captured. Useful for chasing slow payers without guessing whether the link arrived.
3-D Secure 2 by default
Every Pay by Link transaction runs through 3-D Secure 2. Compliant with UK SCA rules out of the box — no separate plugin, no extra configuration.
Refunds from the original transaction
Full or partial refunds, executed directly from the payment row in the Portal. No separate refund process, no second authentication, no rebuilding the order in a different screen.
Same rate as your other channels
Pay by Link is a card-not-present transaction billed at the same blended (or IC++) rate as the rest of your processing — no add-on margin, no premium for the delivery method.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a website to use Pay by Link?+
How secure is a Pay by Link payment?+
Can I send links by WhatsApp or social media?+
Does my customer need an app or account to pay?+
How quickly do funds settle?+
Can I refund a Pay by Link payment?+
What happens if the customer doesn't pay before the link expires?+
Is there a per-link fee?+
Other ways to take Monek payments
UK Payment Gateway
The full online-payments product — online, in-store and phone, on one Monek account.
Explore →Virtual Terminal
Take card details by phone via secure MOTO. Suits established call-centre flows.
Explore →Card Machines
Face-to-face card payments on PAX terminals, integrated with the same Portal.
Explore →Start sending Pay by Links today
Send us a recent statement and we'll quote you a like-for-like UK rate within an hour. Pay by Link is included free on every account.