# What your customer sees

> Understand the card checkout, provider choice and return journey so you can confidently guide a customer through payment.

Source: https://railbed.io/docs/user-guide/buyer-experience/ · Updated: 2026-09-26 · Railbed by DeepWork user guide

## From your link to payment

**Visual example: Explore a payment from start to finish.** Create a link: set an amount and share it. Buyer pays: the buyer opens a licensed provider in a new tab and pays by card. Payment confirmed: check the payment status and the reported settlement in your dashboard.

*Illustrative Test payment. Select a step to see what happens.*

1. Your customer opens the payment link, checkout page or embed. They see your business, product and price. A pricing table first asks them to choose a plan.
2. They provide an email address and continue. A payment link can prefill the email you entered when creating it.
3. Railbed shows eligible card providers and a recommended **Best match**. The buyer chooses a provider.
4. The provider opens in a new tab. The buyer enters card details and completes any checks there.
5. The original Railbed checkout tab waits for confirmation. When the payment is marked paid, it shows the result or follows your configured success URL.

**Visual example: From a card payment to your wallet.** Smart Routing checks country, currency, amount and availability to show eligible card providers. The buyer pays with a provider, and settlement goes to the merchant's wallet as USDC on Polygon.

*Eligibility depends on the buyer. Identity checks are decided by the provider.*

## How Smart Routing chooses providers

Smart Routing considers the buyer's country, checkout currency, amount, provider minimums and availability. It filters for eligible card methods and ranks the available choices. You do not need to configure a routing rule for each country.

The provider list can differ between buyers and change over time. Test mode uses a fixed example list, so it is not a live availability check. A low checkout amount may have no eligible provider even though Railbed accepted the product price.

**Best match is a recommendation, not an approval guarantee.** The provider decides whether to accept the card, what fees or conversion terms to show, and which identity checks to require. Railbed cannot promise that a buyer will never be asked for ID.

## Why there are two tabs

Keeping the Railbed tab open gives the customer a page that can report the verified payment result and return them to your store. The provider's own final page may have a different destination that your Railbed success URL does not control.

Tell customers to keep the original checkout tab open. After finishing on the provider page, they can return to it to see progress. If their browser blocks new tabs, payment can continue in the original tab, and they may need to navigate back to Railbed to see the result.

## If a card is declined

A Live decline is shown by the card provider. Railbed does not receive a direct decline signal, so your dashboard may still show **Open** or **In progress**. The buyer can use **Choose another way to pay** where available to return to provider choice before the payment expires.

Avoid assuming that an in-progress payment means the card was charged. If the buyer believes they were charged, inspect the payment and the provider's confirmation before asking them to make a separate payment.

## If the page says Being reviewed

Payment evidence arrived but did not pass all the checks needed for normal confirmation. Ask the buyer to wait while you [review the payment](https://railbed.io/docs/user-guide/held-payments.md). A held payment is not an instruction to top up the original payment.

## Thank-you pages and receipts

A success URL runs from the original checkout after payment confirmation. If that tab is closed, Railbed cannot redirect it. Closing the page does not cancel money already sent.

Without a success URL, Railbed shows an on-screen receipt. Automatic buyer receipt emails are not available. If your store sends order emails, those are handled by the store or your own integration.

For manual order delivery, verify **Paid** in your dashboard. For automatic delivery, connect [signed webhooks or authenticated payment checks](https://railbed.io/docs/guides/fulfilment.md). Never use the buyer's screenshot, browser redirect or thank-you page as the only payment proof.