Skip to main content
Recurring payments let you charge a customer again without asking for their card details each time. The customer pays once with their card, which you collect on your own page and send to Nomba. Nomba saves the card and gives you a card token (tokenKey). From then on, you charge the card by sending that token. This section uses the API for the first payment: you collect the customer’s card details on your own page and send them to Nomba. To send the customer to the Nomba checkout page instead, see Recurring payments with hosted checkout. Use recurring payments for:
  • Subscriptions and memberships
  • Instalment plans
  • Automatic top-ups, such as wallet or airtime reloads
  • One-click repeat purchases (“Pay with saved card”)

​
How it works

1

Create a checkout order

Create the first order with tokenizeCard: true. Create a checkout order →
2

Submit card details

Send the card details the customer entered on your page. Submit card details →
3

Submit card OTP

Send the OTP from the customer’s bank to complete the first payment. Submit card OTP →
4

Store the card token

Read the tokenKey from the payment_success webhook and save it with your customer’s record. Store the card token →
5

Charge a saved card

When a payment is due, send the tokenKey and the amount to Nomba. Charge a saved card →
6

Complete an OTP challenge, if the bank asks for one

Some banks ask the customer to approve a charge with an OTP. Collect it and submit it. Complete an OTP challenge →
7

Confirm the charge

Verify the final status before you give the customer value. Confirm the charge →

​
What Nomba does and what you do

If you don’t want to run your own billing schedule, use a payment link with a recurring frequency instead. Nomba then saves the customer’s card on the first payment and charges it daily, weekly, monthly or on another schedule you choose. This guide is for merchants who want to control billing from their own server through the API.

​
Before you begin

  • API keys and an access token. See Obtain API keys and Authenticate.
  • A webhook URL. The card token arrives in a webhook. See Setting up webhooks.
  • PCI DSS compliance. You handle the customer’s card details, so your systems must be PCI DSS compliant.
  • Card payments enabled on your account. Saving a card doesn’t need to be switched on separately, but every charge on a saved card is a card payment. If card payments aren’t enabled for your business, the charge is rejected with “Card payment is not supported for this order”. Contact Nomba support to enable them.

​
Key terms

Next: Create a checkout order

Create the order that saves the customer’s card.