Tap to Pay
Take a contactless card or phone payment on your own phone, with no card reader, and what to do when it won't start.
With Stripe set up, your phone takes contactless cards and phone wallets. No reader needed.
Take a payment for an invoice
- Open the invoice and tap Tap to Pay (Tap to Pay on iPhone on an iPhone) under Payments. You can also choose it when you send the invoice.
- When the screen says Waiting for the card…, the customer holds their card or phone near the top of the back of your phone.
- If the card asks for a PIN, they enter it on your screen.
- Paid shows the amount. Quotebird emails the receipt if the customer has an email, or you tap Share receipt.
Take a payment without an invoice
On the Invoices tab, tap New → Tap to Pay. Enter What it’s for and the Amount, then tap the button. This issues a numbered invoice first, then reads the card. If the card is declined, the invoice stays: take the payment another way, or void it.
The first time
How to use Tap to Pay opens once. On an iPhone with iOS 18, Apple shows its own guide. You can open it again from Settings → How to use Tap to Pay.
If it won’t start
- Tap to Pay needs your location. Stripe requires it: tap Open Settings and allow location.
- Stripe needs your business address. Add it to your profile.
- This phone can’t take Tap to Pay. Send the payment link instead.
- Turn off developer options, screen recording and apps that draw over the screen; Tap to Pay won’t start while they’re on.
- Tap to Pay takes your own country’s currency only.
If a card can’t be read, send the invoice’s payment link instead.
Interac in Canada
Interac debit cards work too. An Interac payment is refunded the same way, in person: the customer taps the same card on your phone. See Refunds.