Push Payments: Definition, Benefits, and Risks

While today’s payment systems can feel highly automated, every transaction still begins with someone initiating the movement of funds. Behind the scenes, money doesn’t simply move from one account to another on its own—a payment instruction has to come from somewhere. In most cases, that instruction either pushes money out of an account or pulls money into another account. More simply put, these are known as push and pull payments.

With a push payment, the sender is in the driver's seat. They choose when to send, how much, what rail it travels on, and where it goes. With a pull payment, the payee has been authorized in advance to collect funds from the payer's account. This is usually based on a prior agreement, but in cases like tax levies from the IRS, it could be up to a larger institution’s discretion.

In this guide, we’ll explain how push and pull payments work, where each approach is commonly used, and the fraud considerations businesses should understand before relying on either method. We’ll also take a look at Slash, a financial platform that gives businesses more control over how they collect and send funds.¹ With Slash, your business can embed ACH payment links into invoices, collect authorization once, and automatically pull future payments through ACH Direct Debit instead of relying on customers to manually pay each invoice.

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What is a Push Payment?

A push payment is any type of transaction where the payer sends funds directly to a payee. The payer decides when the money leaves, how much is sent, and who receives it. Nothing moves unless the sender either initiates it themselves or schedules it to be sent through a banking platform.

Push payments can run across quite a few different rails, including wire transfers, ACH, real-time payments via RTP or FedNow, digital wallets, and countless other international networks. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter which rail your funds travel through. As long as you’re sending your money somewhere else, it’s considered a push payment. Here are a few common examples:

When you log in and transfer money from your account to pay a vendor invoice
When an insurance company sends a claim settlement to your account
When a finance team initiates a wire to a supplier
When a corporation sends funds to one of its subsidiaries
When you send money to your friend via a P2P payment app like Venmo

When it comes to the mechanics, pull payments are the opposite. With something like a gym membership or a streaming subscription, you may technically be paying another party, but they’re authorized to collect funds on a schedule and pull money from your account without any action from your side. Push payments require a direct choice and action from the sender every time, even if that action is scheduled ahead of time.

Push Payments vs. Pull Payments

The main difference between push payments and pull payments is who initiates the transaction. With push payments, the payer sends money. With pull payments, the payee is authorized to collect it. Here’s a quick breakdown of all the differences:

	Push Payment	Pull Payment
Who initiates?	Payer	Payee
Who controls timing?	Sender	Recipient (within agreed terms)
How does authorization work?	Payer actively approves each transfer	Payer grants ongoing permission in advance
Where does the money come from?	Bank account, digital wallet, or other sender-held account	Bank account linked to the payer's standing authorization
Common examples	ACH credits, wire transfers, digital wallet payments, RTP, FedNow	ACH debits, direct debits, subscription billing, recurring card charges

With some dynamics, the two parties will get to decide between moving money with a push or a pull. This choice largely comes down to who should be in control of timing and execution.

For a lot of business payments, the sender is the one that decides the timing. When paying a vendor invoice or making a one-off transfer, the payer sets the amount and pushes the money forward when he or she hits “send”. Pull payments fit better when the payee needs predictable, scheduled collections from someone who's already agreed to the terms. Subscription services, utility providers, and insurance companies use pull payments because they don't want to rely on customers remembering to pay, nor can they allow them to decide how much they send.

Most businesses use pull payments to collect revenue and push payments to distribute it. Once customer funds have been collected, finance teams still need to pay vendors, contractors, employees, and partners. Slash supports a range of outbound payment options—including ACH, RTP/FedNow, international wires, stablecoins, and virtual cards—allowing businesses to choose the most appropriate rail for each transaction.⁴

Benefits and Risks of Push Payments

If you’re a business working with trusted partners and clients, allowing them to manage payment execution can be a helpful time-saver. However, leaving that privilege in someone else’s hands also opens the transfer up to mistakes and vulnerabilities. Here are some advantages and disadvantages to push payments:

Benefits of push payments

Timing control:Since the sender decides when funds leave, push payments can be a natural fit for invoice payments, vendor disbursements, and situations where cash timing matters. If you're managing float or waiting on an incoming payment before you send your own out, nothing goes out until you say so.
Flexibility in amount:A pull payment typically collects a fixed amount on a fixed schedule, set at the time the authorization was granted. A push payment, on the other hand, can be for any amount the sender chooses. That makes them useful for milestone-based disbursements and contractor payments that vary from project to project.
Compatibility with real-time rails:RTP, FedNow, and fast payment systems in other countries are push-based by design. When speed matters and the amount is known, a push payment on a real-time rail can arrive in seconds rather than days. Pull payments can’t settle that quickly.
Cleaner setup for one-time transfers:Because the sender initiates each transfer rather than granting standing access to their account, there's no mandate to revoke if something goes wrong and no recurring authorization to monitor. Each transfer is its own decision, which is helpful for larger or less regular payments.

Risks of push payments

Sender manipulation:In an APP (Authorized Push Payment) scam, the fraudster doesn't break into an account or steal credentials. Instead, they convince the real account holder to approve a transfer to the wrong place. The payment is technically authorized, which makes it harder to catch automatically or reverse later on.
Recovery isn't guaranteed:Push payments, especially wires and real-time transfers, can be irrevocable. If you realize a payment went to the wrong account, getting your funds back hinges on how quickly you report it and whether the receiving bank can freeze them before they're withdrawn.
Safeguards don't cover everything:Banks and payment providers often use authentication measures, transaction monitoring, and fraud detection tools to flag suspicious activity. Some regulators allow institutions to delay outbound transfers for investigation when they spot red flags. For instance, the UK's Payment Systems Regulator recently introduced rules requiring banks to share liability for qualifying APP fraud losses. These controls lower the risk, but they don't eliminate it.

Common Authorized Push Payment (APP) Scams

Unlike some other types of fraud and theft, APP scams work because they target the human side of the transaction rather than the digital one. It’s a lot harder to undo a scam payment when the account holder approved it. For that reason, ACI Worldwide's Scamscope Report found that losses from APP scams total between $6 and $7 billion a year.

Here are four ways they’re typically carried out:

Impersonation scams

With an impersonation scam, the fraudster poses as someone the victim trusts. This isn’t usually a family member, but someone like a bank fraud team, a government agency, or a utility company that handles payments. Their story usually involves an urgent message like, “Your account has been compromised,” or “You owe a $XXX penalty”. The victim, believing the threat is real and time-sensitive, may initiate the transfer themselves.

Because the sender authorized the payment, it looks like a normal transaction from the bank's perspective. The funds usually land in an account that the scammer’s ready to empty quickly, which makes recovery even more difficult.

Invoice and supplier payment fraud

This one targets businesses directly. With invoice fraud, a scammer impersonates a legitimate vendor, either by hacking their email or by closely spoofing a known email address. They send what looks like an updated invoice with new banking details. The finance team, following their standard procedures, initiates the payment to who they think is a trusted supplier. The money goes to the fraudster instead.

Your money’s out of your hands, the real vendor still hasn't been paid, and the fraudster’s account may be emptied by the end of the day. Standard invoice fraud controls may not help here because the payment itself was authorized correctly, but the bank account was wrong.

Investment scams

In an investment scam, the pitch is usually an investment opportunity with unusually high returns. This might relate to a cryptocurrency platform, a private equity deal, a commodities fund, or some other buy-in-now occasion. Dedicated fraudsters may build out a website with performance charts along with someone playing the role of an account manager.

The victim sends funds in one or more transfers, watching their "balance" grow on screen. Early on, withdrawal becomes impossible, and it’s often blamed on a "fee" or "tax" the victim is asked to pay to unlock their returns. The account manager stops responding. Again, every transfer was willingly authorized, which makes recovery from these scams particularly hard.

Real estate and large transaction scams

Fraudsters can target large real estate closings by intercepting or spoofing communications from attorneys, escrow companies, or settlement agents. When the transaction date approaches, the buyer receives what looks like official wire instructions with slightly altered account details. If they fall for the message, they wire the funds to the fraudster's account instead of the legitimate escrow.

Since wire transfers are typically irrevocable and real estate closing days get hectic, the mistake often isn't caught until the real settlement agent follows up and asks where the payment is. Even worse, payments in this industry often reach the hundreds of thousands.

Send and Track Business Payments Through Slash

Most businesses don’t rely on a single payment rail. Vendors may prefer ACH, international partners may require wires, and some transactions may be better suited for real-time payments or stablecoins. Managing these payment methods across multiple providers can create unnecessary complexity for finance teams. Slash brings them together in a single platform.

Slash supports a wide range of payment methods, including:

Same-day, standard, and global ACH
Domestic and international wires to 180+ countries in 135+ currencies
FedNow and RTP
Stablecoin payments via USDC and USDT across eight blockchains

Finance teams can track all payment activity from a single dashboard, providing greater visibility into how money moves throughout the business. With the help of Twin, Slash’s AI-powered finance assistant, teams can analyze spending patterns, identify trends, and gain insights into future cash flow.

Need to collect money instead of sending it? Slash also supports ACH Direct Debit through invoicing. Businesses can create invoices, embed ACH payment links, collect customer authorization, and automate recurring collections without relying on customers to manually pay each billing cycle.

Additional features include:

Slash Visa Platinum Card:Earn up to 2%+ cashback on eligible spend. Issue unlimited virtual cards to your team, set granular spend controls, and track every purchase in real-time in the Slash dashboard.
Accounting and ERP integrations:Sync transaction data with QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite, or Sage Intacct to streamline reconciliation, reporting, and month-end close.
Working capital financing:Access short-term financing with flexible 30-, 60-, or 90-day repayment terms to help bridge cash flow gaps.⁵
High-yield treasury:Earn up to 3.82% annualized yield on idle funds with money market investments from BlackRock and Morgan Stanley, managed directly within your Slash account.⁶
Expense management:Send customized invoices, collect payments, and manage vendor bills from the same platform. Give employees a centralized place to manage card requests, expense submissions, reimbursement reviews, and other finance-related tasks with the action center.

If you’re looking for a simpler way to send, collect, and track payments across multiple rails, take a look at Slash today.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can authorized push payments (APPs) be reversed?

Usually, no. Authorized push payments (APP) are notoriously difficult to reverse. Because you actively initiated and authorized the transaction, financial institutions and payment networks treat it as legitimate, meaning standard chargeback protections typically don't apply.

Is it quicker to pull payments or push payments?

With a push payment, you can have access to real-time payment rails that pull payments can't use. Therefore, push payments are usually faster.

Can scam detection tools catch fraudulent APP transactions?

Because APP scams are often initiated by the payer, the transaction is authenticated normally, and scam detection tools won't often be able to catch them. That's why invoice fraud and romance scams can be so easy to get away with.

Which payment methods are push payments, and which payment methods are pull payments?

ACH, wire transfers, real-time payments, virtual cards, and crypto transfers are all instances where the money is pushed from payer to payee. Pull payment methods, on the other hand, include Direct Debit, credit card auto-billing, and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL).