## Overview The most common scenario for this guide is to facilitate marketplace or peer-to-peer transfers between your customers. In this guide, we’ll cover the key points of transferring money: 1. **Create a Verified Customer who will receive the transfer** Create a Verified Customer in your application to act as the recipient of the funds. 2. **Create an Unverified Customer who will send the transfer** Create an Unverified Customer who will initiate and send the funds. 3. **Associate a verified funding source with the sender** Link and verify a bank or credit union account to the sender’s profile to enable sending funds. 4. **Associate an unverified funding source with recipient** Link a bank or credit union account to the recipient’s profile (verification not required for receiving funds). 5. **Transfer funds from the sender's funding source to the recipient's funding source** Initiate a transfer from the sender’s verified funding source to the recipient’s funding source using the Dwolla API. Certain use cases involving transfers between users, such as peer-to-peer payments, may require additional review to ensure alignment with Dwolla’s risk policies. Before you start building, [contact our Sales team](/content/contact/index.html) to confirm that your use case is supported. ## Before you begin You need to have a [Sandbox account](https://developers.dwolla.com/docs/testing) already set up. ## Verified and Unverified Customers Here are some rules to keep in mind: 1. With a transfer of money, at least one party must complete the [identity verification process](/content/updates/guide-customer-identification-program-payments-api/index.html), either the sender or the receiver. It’s your decision about which party completes this process, based on your business model, and you may want to have both parties complete the identity verification process. 2. The sender must have a verified funding source. Unverified funding sources can only receive money, not send. In this guide, we’ll create two Customers: one to represent a seller and one to represent a buyer. In this scenario, the seller, Jane Merchant, is a `Verified Customer` with an unverified funding source. The buyer, Joe Buyer, is an `Unverified Customer` with a verified funding source. This is a suggested approach and there are other ways you can implement your marketplace transfers. For instance, both the sender and the receiver (or buyer and seller) could be `Verified Customers`, and both could have verified funding sources. Or, you could have the sender undergo identity verification but not the recipient. Looking to learn more about each Customer type and how it relates to your funds flow? Take a look at our [Customer types](https://developers.dwolla.com/docs/customer-types) article for more information. # Step 1 - Create a Verified Customer First, we’ll create a `Verified Customer` for Jane Merchant. There are two types of Verified Customers you can create; [Personal Verified Customers](https://developers.dwolla.com/docs/personal-verified-customer) and [Business Verified Customers.](https://developers.dwolla.com/docs/business-verified-customer) In this example, we use [Business Verified Customers](https://developers.dwolla.com/docs/business-verified-customer) (sole proprietorship) to represent the merchant who will be receiving funds. ### HTTP ``` POST https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers Content-Type: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json Accept: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json Authorization: Bearer 0Sn0W6kzNic+oWhDbQcVSKLRUpGjIdl/YyrHqrDDoRnQwE7Q { "firstName": "Jane", "lastName": "Merchant", "email": "solePropBusiness@email.com", "ipAddress": "143.156.7.8", "type": "business", "dateOfBirth": "1980-01-31", "ssn": "6789", "address1": "99-99 33rd St", "city": "Some City", "state": "NY", "postalCode": "11101", "businessClassification": "9ed3f670-7d6f-11e3-b1ce-5404a6144203", "businessType": "soleProprietorship", "businessName":"Jane Corp", "ein":"00-0000000" } HTTP/1.1 201 Created Location: https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/62c3aa1b-3a1b-46d0-ae90-17304d60c3d5 ``` ### Creating Verified Customer in Code (PHP) ``` create([ 'firstName' => 'Jane', 'lastName' => 'Merchant', 'email' => 'solePropBusiness@email.com', 'ipAddress' => '143.156.7.8', 'type' => 'business', 'dateOfBirth' => '1980-01-31', 'ssn' => '6789', 'address1' => '99-99 33rd St', 'city' => 'Some City', 'state' => 'NY', 'postalCode' => '11101', 'businessClassification' => '9ed3f670-7d6f-11e3-b1ce-5404a6144203', 'businessType' => 'soleProprietorship', 'businessName' => 'Jane Corp', 'ein' => '00-0000000']); ?> ``` ### Using DwollaV2 - Ruby Version ``` request_body = { :firstName => 'Jane', :lastName => 'Merchant', :email => 'solePropBusiness@email.com', :ipAddress => '143.156.7.8', :type => 'business', :dateOfBirth => '1980-01-31', :ssn => '6789', :address1 => '99-99 33rd St', :city => 'Some City', :state => 'NY', :postalCode => '11101', :businessClassification => '9ed3f670-7d6f-11e3-b1ce-5404a6144203', :businessType => 'soleProprietorship', :businessName => 'Jane Corp', :ein => '00-0000000' } customer = app_token.post "customers", request_body customer.response_headers[:location] # => "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/62c3aa1b-3a1b-46d0-ae90-17304d60c3d5" ``` ### Using DwollaV2 - Python Version ``` request_body = { 'firstName': 'Jane', 'lastName': 'Merchant', 'email': 'solePropBusiness@email.com', 'ipAddress': '143.156.7.8', 'type': 'business', 'dateOfBirth': '1980-01-31', 'ssn': '6789', 'address1': '99-99 33rd St', 'city': 'Some City', 'state': 'NY', 'postalCode': '11101', 'businessClassification': '9ed3f670-7d6f-11e3-b1ce-5404a6144203', 'businessType': 'soleProprietorship', 'businessName': 'Jane Corp', 'ein': '00-0000000' } customer = app_token.post('customers', request_body) customer.headers['location'] # => 'https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/62c3aa1b-3a1b-46d0-ae90-17304d60c3d5' ``` ### Following Customer Creation When the customer is created, you’ll receive the customer URL in the location header. There are various reasons a Verified Customer will result in a status other than `verified` which you will want to account for after the Customer is created. Reference the Customer verification resource article for more information on [handling verification statuses](https://developers.dwolla.com/docs/business-verified-customer#handle-verification-statuses). # Step 2 - Create unverified funding source Next, we’ll add Jane Merchant’s bank or credit union account as an unverified funding source. Unverified funding sources can only receive funds, not send. The example below shows sample bank information, but you will include actual bank name, routing, and account numbers after prompting your customer for this information within your application. Possible values for `bankAccountType` can be either “checking” or “savings”. More detail is available in [API docs](https://developers.dwolla.com/docs/api-reference/funding-sources/create-customer-funding-source). ### HTTP ``` POST https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/AB443D36-3757-44C1-A1B4-29727FB3111C/funding-sources Content-Type: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json Accept: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json Authorization: Bearer 0Sn0W6kzNicvoWhDbQcVSKLRUpGjIdl/YyrHqrDDoRnQwE7Q { "routingNumber": "222222226", "accountNumber": "123456789", "bankAccountType": "checking", "name": "Jane Merchant" } HTTP/1.1 201 Created Location: https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/funding-sources/375c6781-2a17-476c-84f7-db7d2f6ffb31 ``` ### Creating Unverified Funding Source in Code (PHP) ``` customer_url = 'https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/62c3aa1b-3a1b-46d0-ae90-17304d60c3d5'; request_body = { routingNumber: '222222226', accountNumber: '123456789', bankAccountType: 'checking', name: 'Jane Merchant' } # Using DwollaV2 - Ruby Version funding_source = app_token.post "#{customer_url}/funding-sources", request_body funding_source.response_headers[:location] # => "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/funding-sources/375c6781-2a17-476c-84f7-db7d2f6ffb31" ``` Now that we’ve created a customer for Jane Merchant and associated a funding source, we’ll do the same for Joe Buyer, but this time we’ll create an `Unverified Customer`, and a verified funding source which is capable of sending money. Provide the user’s full name, email address, and IP address to create the Customer. More detail is available in [API docs](https://developers.dwolla.com/api-reference/customers). ### HTTP ``` POST https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers Content-Type: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json Accept: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json Authorization: Bearer 0Sn0W6kzNicvoWhDbQcVSKLRUpGjIdl/YyrHqrDDoRnQwE7Q { "firstName": "Joe", "lastName": "Buyer", "email": "jbuyer@mail.net" } HTTP/1.1 201 Created Location: https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/247B1BD8-F5A0-4B71-A898-F62F67B8AE1C ``` ### Creating Unverified Customer in Code (PHP) ``` request_body = { :firstName => 'Joe', :lastName => 'Buyer', :email => 'jbuyer@mail.net', :ipAddress => '99.99.99.99' } # Using DwollaV2 - Ruby Version customer = app_token.post "customers", request_body customer.response_headers[:location] # => "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/customers/247B1BD8-F5A0-4B71-A898-F62F67B8AE1C" ``` ### Step 4 - Attach a verified funding source Next, you will create and attach a verified funding source to Joe Buyer, which will be done using Dwolla’s Open Banking solution with Plaid, a leading Open Banking service provider that Dwolla partners with. This method will give Joe Buyer the ability to add and verify their bank account in a matter of seconds by authenticating using their online banking credentials. Once Joe Buyer reaches the page in your application to add a bank account, you will use Open Banking with Plaid to authenticate their bank account. This involves initiating an Exchange Session with Dwolla, guiding the user through the verification process with their bank, and then using the Exchange details to create a funding source in Dwolla. For more information, consult our [integration guide](https://developers.dwolla.com/docs/open-banking/plaid). Additionally, if you would like to see a working example that verifies a bank using Open Banking with Plaid and attaches it as a verified funding source to a Dwolla Customer, please check out our [open-banking/plaid](https://github.com/Dwolla/integration-examples/tree/main/packages/open-banking/plaid) integration example on our GitHub profile. ## Step 5 - Initiating a transfer ### HTTP ``` POST https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/transfers Accept: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json Content-Type: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json Authorization: Bearer 0Sn0W6kzNicvoWhDbQcVSKLRUpGjIdl/YyrHqrDDoRnQwE7Q { "_links": { "source": { "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/funding-sources/80275e83-1f9d-4bf7-8816-2ddcd5ffc197" }, "destination": { "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/funding-sources/375c6781-2a17-476c-84f7-db7d2f6ffb31" } }, "amount": { "currency": "USD", "value": "225.00" } } HTTP/1.1 201 Created Location: https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/transfers/d76265cd-0951-e511-80da-0aa34a9b2388 ``` ### Initiating a Transfer in Code ``` request_body = { :_links => { :source => { :href => "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/funding-sources/80275e83-1f9d-4bf7-8816-2ddcd5ffc197" }, :destination => { :href => "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/funding-sources/375c6781-2a17-476c-84f7-db7d2f6ffb31" } }, :amount => { :currency => "USD", :value => "225.00" } } transfer = app_token.post "transfers", request_body transfer.response_headers[:location] # => "https://api.dwolla.com/transfers/d76265cd-0951-e511-80da-0aa34a9b2388" ``` You can check the status of the newly created transfer by retrieving the transfer by its URL.