When a customer pays you through Fonepay, the money does not land in your bank account the same instant. It sits with Fonepay and is then settled to your account on a schedule you choose. Fonepay gives merchants three settlement options, and the right one depends on whether you care more about speed or about saving a few rupees. Here is what each one does.
What "settlement" means
Settlement is the step where money from your Fonepay payments moves from Fonepay into your registered bank account. It is separate from the payment itself: the customer's payment can succeed instantly while the money settles to you later, in a batch. Your settlement option decides how often that happens.
Fonepay's three settlement options
Instant settlement
Money moves to your acquiring bank account right after each transaction, so you are paid almost as fast as the customer pays. Fonepay charges Rs 5 per settlement for this. It suits businesses where cash flow matters more than a small per-settlement fee.
Multi-session settlement (free)
Instead of one settlement a day, Fonepay runs three settlement sessions a day, free of charge:
- Session 1: payments taken between 12:00 AM and 10:00 AM settle from 11:00 AM
- Session 2: payments taken between 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM settle from 4:00 PM
- Session 3: payments taken between 3:00 PM and 12:00 AM settle from 1:00 AM
This is a good default for most merchants: you get your money the same day, several times over, without paying a settlement fee.
On-request withdrawal (free)
You withdraw your balance yourself, whenever you want, with no daily frequency limit and no charge. Anything you have not withdrawn during the day is settled automatically at 12:00 AM. This suits merchants who prefer to pull funds on their own schedule.
The rules that apply to all three
- You can change your settlement setting once every 24 hours, with a waiting period before you can change it again.
- A change takes effect immediately, but payments you accepted before the change still settle under the previous option.
- Settled money always goes to your registered acquiring bank account. The destination cannot be altered per settlement.
Which one should you pick?
- Choose instant if getting paid quickly is worth the Rs 5 per settlement.
- Choose multi-session if you want same-day money, several times a day, for free. This is the sensible default for most stores.
- Choose on-request if you would rather control exactly when funds land, with an automatic sweep at midnight as a backstop.
How settlement works with PayBridgeNP
A common worry is whether adding a payment gateway changes any of this. With PayBridgeNP, it does not, because we never hold your funds. Fonepay still settles straight to your own acquiring bank account, on whichever Fonepay settlement option you have chosen. PayBridgeNP routes and tracks the payment so you can reconcile every transaction in one dashboard, but the money never passes through us and there is no separate PayBridgeNP payout to wait on.
In other words: you set your settlement option with Fonepay as usual, and you still get the same speed and the same fees. PayBridgeNP just gives you eSewa, Khalti, and Fonepay through one integration on top of it.
Next Steps
- Set up Fonepay on your store, or check live Fonepay status.
- See how to accept Fonepay alongside eSewa and Khalti through one API.
- Compare eSewa, Khalti, and Fonepay for your business.
- Start free in the PayBridgeNP dashboard.