Eligibility

The fast-payment eligibility tool checks which faster-than-standard delivery options a payment between two of an entity’s accounts is eligible for, without creating a payment. Use it to decide which delivery preferences to offer a business before making the payment. Eligibility depends on the originating (debit) account, the receiving (credit) account, and the amount. The response has one entry per fast option valid for the receiving account’s rail, for example same-day-ach and rtp for ACH, or express-check and overnight-check for check.

POST /tools/fast-payment-eligibility

Authentication: API key (Authorization: Bearer <api-key>). Required header: Melio-Entity-Id - the entity that owns the accounts, either an entity id (ent_<uuid>) or me for the partner’s sole entity.

amount is in minor units (cents). An amount of 125000 means $1,250.00.

Request

Field	Type	Required	Description
`originatingAccountId`	string	Yes	Internal originating account id (`acct_<id>`), the debit account.
`receivingAccountId`	string	Yes	External receiving account id (`acct_<id>`), the credit account.
`amount`	integer	Yes	The prospective payment amount to check, in minor units (cents).
`currency`	string	No	Defaults to `USD`.

Example request

curl -X POST https://api.example.com/v2/tools/fast-payment-eligibility \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <api-key>" \
  -H "Melio-Entity-Id: me" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "originatingAccountId": "acct_3f2504e0-4f89-41d3-9a0c-0305e82c3301",
    "receivingAccountId": "acct_9b1deb4d-3b7d-4bad-9bdd-2b0d7b3dcb6d",
    "amount": 125000
  }'

Response

The request amount and currency are echoed back, alongside an eligibilities array with one decision per fast delivery preference valid for the receiving rail.

{
  "originatingAccountId": "acct_3f2504e0-4f89-41d3-9a0c-0305e82c3301",
  "receivingAccountId": "acct_9b1deb4d-3b7d-4bad-9bdd-2b0d7b3dcb6d",
  "amount": 125000,
  "currency": "USD",
  "eligibilities": [
    { "deliveryPreference": "same-day-ach", "eligible": true },
    { "deliveryPreference": "rtp", "eligible": false }
  ]
}

Field	Description
`eligibilities[].deliveryPreference`	A faster-than-standard preference valid for the receiving rail: one of `same-day-ach`, `rtp`, `express-check`, `overnight-check`, `instant-domestic-wire`, `instant-virtual-card`.
`eligibilities[].eligible`	`true` when the fast preference can be used for this payment.

The array is empty when the receiving rail has no fast variants.

When eligible is false - including when the eligibility engine is temporarily unavailable - fall back to the receiving rail’s standard-speed preference (for example standard-ach). Do not assume a fast option is available unless it is explicitly returned as eligible: true.

Errors

Status	When
`400`	Validation error or an invalid account type.
`404`	The entity or an account was not found.

See Errors for the response shape.

Fee Calculator - the cost of each delivery preference.
Delivery ETA - when a payment would be delivered.

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