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Payments & Transfers

Bill Pay

Let customers add payees, schedule one-time or recurring bill payments, and track their status.

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Overview

The Bill Pay API lets customers pay their bills directly from a Citi deposit account. Customers can add payees, schedule one-time or recurring payments, and see when each payment will be delivered — all from within your app.

What you can do

Manage payees — Add, update, and remove the billers a customer pays.

Schedule payments — Set up one-time or recurring payments with a delivery date.

Track and cancel — Show upcoming and past payments, and cancel anything not yet processed.

Add a payee

1

Authenticate

Obtain an access token with the payments:write scope.

2

Create the payee

Provide the biller’s name and the customer’s account number with that biller.

3

Schedule a payment

Reference the payeeRef and a funding accountRef to schedule a payment.

{
  "payeeRef": "pye_5521",
  "fromAccountRef": "acct_884201",
  "amount": { "value": 120.00, "currency": "USD" },
  "sendOn": "2026-05-01",
  "frequency": "MONTHLY"
}
{
  "paymentId": "bill_9f0c",
  "status": "SCHEDULED",
  "deliverBy": "2026-05-03"
}

Electronic payees are usually paid within 1–2 business days. Payees paid by mailed check can take 5–7 business days — surface the deliverBy date so customers schedule early.

Payment frequencies

FrequencyDescription
ONCEA single payment on the chosen date
WEEKLYRepeats every week
MONTHLYRepeats every month
ANNUALLYRepeats every year

A scheduled payment can be canceled only before it begins processing. Once a payment is PROCESSING, it can no longer be stopped through the API.

Security requirements

Requests require an OAuth 2.0 access token with the payments:write scope. See the Authentication guide.