In This Section
In the @handle Overview section of the borderless™ documentation you will find:
- Definition of @handle
- How to use @handles to make payments
What is a @handle?
The borderless™ @handle is a unique identifier for each borderless™ Contact. The @handle system is designed to reduce sharing sensitive banking information by tokenizing the data so you can make payments to over 120+ supported borderless™ countries with just this one piece of information. There are two types of borderless™ @handles:
- Internal Contact @handles
- External Contact @handles
Internal Contact @handles:
borderless™ users create their own unique @handles when they sign up to the borderless™ platform.
External Contact @handles
You can pay anyone in a borderless™ supported country, even if they're not a borderless™ user, by adding them as a Contact. When Contacts are created, the borderless™ system will auto-generate an alphanumeric @handle. The borderless™ generated alphanumeric @handle looks something like this: “@^aaa21"
Using @handles to Make Payments
A Contact's @handle is a required field to make payments. Make sure you send the request without the "@" character. For example, if the Contact's @handle is "@borderless" simply submit "borderless" in the @handle field.
Internal @handles
For borderless™ users, @handles need to be collected from the recipient prior to making payments. This avoids the need for you to collect banking information helping you reduce your data liability. We recommend that your customers share this data on your platform for you to store in your database.
Pro Tip
You can pay any borderless™ users' @handle without adding them as a Contact.
External @handles
To pay Contacts you have created (External Contacts), submit the payment using the system generated @handle for that Contact. Make sure you submit the payment without the "@" (but including the "^" character). For example, a valid External Contact entry would look like this: “^aaa21”