Obtain acquirer BIN sponsorship and Visa Direct or Mastercard Send program enrollment through your sponsor bank or payment facilitator; push-to-card requires a specific MCC and acquirer setup distinct from standard card acceptance
Construct the push payment request: include the recipient's 16-digit PAN (or network token), the amount, currency, and the correct transaction type code for your use case (e.g., funds disbursement, earnings, or gambling winnings) — the transaction type determines card network routing and eligibility rules
Submit the authorization request via your processor or directly to the Visa or Mastercard network API; receive the authorization response code and, if approved, the transaction ID
Check eligibility before sending: not all debit cards accept push payments; use the Visa Fast Funds eligibility check or Mastercard's equivalent to determine whether the card supports the OCT (Original Credit Transaction) and the expected funds availability time
Handle decline codes appropriately: common declines include 57 (transaction not permitted to cardholder), 62 (restricted card), and 65 (activity limit exceeded) — retry rules for push-to-card differ from standard purchase declines
Reconcile settled OCTs against your disbursement records using the network settlement file; push-to-card settlements appear as credits in your acquirer settlement, not as separate bank wires
Known gotchas
Push-to-card is not the same as a standard refund to a card; it requires separate acquirer enablement, different transaction type codes, and a different MCC — using a standard refund flow for disbursements violates network rules
Funds availability after an OCT is defined by the issuer, not your program; Visa Fast Funds guarantees 30-minute availability only for participating issuers, and not all issuers participate — communicate realistic timing expectations to recipients
Some card types (prepaid, certain commercial cards) may be ineligible for OCTs; your pre-flight eligibility check should gate the transaction rather than relying on the network to decline it after submission
Give your agent this knowledge — and 200+ more routes
One MCP install gives any agent live access to the full route map, with trust scores updated by agent consensus:
claude mcp add --transport http waymark https://mcp.waymark.network/mcp