Payment link: what it is and how to collect without a store

A payment link is a URL that opens a secure checkout page with the amount and the concept already filled in. You create it, share it over WhatsApp, email, or a message, and your customer pays from their phone — without an online store, a shopping cart, or a card terminal. In Mexico it is also called a link de cobro: the same tool, built for closing a sale at a distance.

What a payment link is

Collecting with a payment link is four steps. You set up the charge (amount, concept, sometimes an expiration), copy the URL, send it through the channel where you are already talking, and wait for confirmation. The customer does not create an account or install an app: they open the link, check what they are paying for, and pay by card or, if the provider offers it, by bank transfer.

That is different from texting your CLABE and reconciling the deposit by hand, and different from standing up a site with a catalog, cart, and checkout. The link covers sales that already happen off a storefront: a quote over the phone, an order on WhatsApp, a deposit to book a service.

Banks and fintechs offer this kind of link; the instrument is the same even if the provider changes. Payment platforms describe it as a shareable URL that opens a hosted checkout page, with no custom checkout to code — Stripe documents that pattern in their Payment Links guide as an industry reference, not as the product you have to use. In Mexico the money still moves through regulated payment systems; if the customer pays by transfer, that operation typically travels over infrastructure such as SPEI, which Banco de México operates.

When Mexican SMBs collect with a payment link

The usual case is not a digital storefront. It is a business that already sells and has no shop window. A firm that closes the work on a call and sends the link for the deposit. A workshop or service provider that quotes on WhatsApp and does not want to ask for a card number in the chat. Someone who delivers to the door and collects there, without lugging a terminal from stop to stop. Someone who teaches, consults, or does maintenance and needs a one-off charge, not a permanent catalog.

That is where a payment link fits: the sales channel already exists. It does not replace a commercial conversation; it keeps that conversation from stalling on “I will send you my account number” or “can I take your card?”

It also works when the same charge repeats — a monthly fee, a package — and you want to reuse the URL, or when each customer has a different amount and you generate a fresh link for that job. What matters is that the customer sees the concept and the total before paying, and that you can see whether the link is still pending, already paid, or expired, without having to ask.

Payment link, payment gateway, and POS terminal are not the same thing

Three tools share a family resemblance and not a job.

• A payment link is a specific charge wrapped in a URL. You share it; the customer pays; you get confirmation. No website or hardware required.
• A payment gateway is the infrastructure that processes cards and other methods inside a store, an app, or your own checkout. It is what you want when you already have a purchase flow and need to embed collection there. A link uses that infrastructure underneath; you do not have to integrate it yourself.
• A terminal (point of sale) collects with the card present: the customer is in front of you and taps or swipes. That is the right tool for a counter or a branch, not for a sale that started on the phone.

If the problem is “I closed the sale on WhatsApp and have no way to collect today,” the link is the piece. If the problem is “I have an online store and I want cards in the cart,” you are looking for a gateway. If the problem is the line at the register, it is a terminal.

Security: card data should not touch your phone

When you collect with a link, the customer types their card on the checkout page — not in the chat, and not on your device. A certified payment provider processes the transaction; sensitive data should not land in your WhatsApp, your email, or a photo of the card.

That cuts both ways. You do not want to be responsible for storing card numbers. Your customer should not send them in a message. CONDUSEF recommends the same for online purchases: pay only on pages with a secure connection (https), check the browser lock before entering a card, and keep the receipt. A well-built link points at that page; a message asking for “the 16 digits” does not.

Share the link on the channel where you already talk to the customer, but do not ask for card details on that same channel. If something looks off — a domain you do not recognize, a surcharge you did not set — do not pay and do not ask anyone to pay: generate the charge again from your system.

From the payment to CRM and the invoice

A standalone link only confirms that the money arrived. The value for an SMB is not leaving that payment dangling. When the charge is tied to the contact in your CRM, you can see who paid, what you quoted them, and whether anything is still outstanding, without matching screenshots to a spreadsheet.

After the payment, you can issue the invoice from invoicing with the tax details you already have on file for that customer, instead of building the CFDI from scratch once the money is in the account. Cretia is not a PAC: if you invoice with Cretia, a certified PAC stamps the CFDI. How a CFDI is built belongs in other guides; here it is enough that collecting and invoicing can be two steps of the same cycle, not two systems that do not talk.

That is the job the payment links module in Cretia is built for: generate the URL, share it, and leave the charge connected to the customer and the invoice it belongs to. It is not the only way to collect online; it is one option for SMBs that already sell over WhatsApp or the phone and do not want the payment to fall out of the rest of the operation.

If you want to see how it fits with the rest of the platform, see pricing and start a 14-day trial.