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APIs · head to head

Method Financial vs Trustly

Method Financial logo

Method Financial

APIs

Consumer liability data and payment API covering credit cards, loans and mortgages without account credentials

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Trustly logo

Trustly

APIs

Pay-by-bank payments network, majority-owned by private equity firm Nordic Capital

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Method Financial institution coverage is uneven once you move beyond major card issuers, so a lender focused on auto or student loan servicers should test its own portfolio mix rather than trust the headline institution count.; Trustly it is majority-owned by Nordic Capital, a private equity firm, so its long-term roadmap is ultimately oriented toward an eventual sale or IPO rather than indefinite independent operation.
  • They diverge on capability: Method Financial covers Identity-based account resolution, Trustly covers Pay by bank checkout.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Method Financial and Trustly actually diverge.

Attributes where Method Financial and Trustly differ
AttributeMethod FinancialTrustly
PlatformsWebWeb, API

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (APIs).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Method Financial

  • Identity-based account resolution
  • Liability data
  • Payoff quotes
  • Direct card payoff
  • Loan payments
  • Method Sync
  • Wide institution reach
  • Consent management

Only in Trustly

  • Pay by bank checkout
  • Instant refunds
  • Verified payouts
  • Multi-market bank connectivity
  • Merchant dashboard and reconciliation
  • Fraud and risk tooling

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Method Financial

  • A debt consolidation lender that needs every card balance and payoff quote for an applicant without asking them to log into each issuernot Trustly
  • A credit card refinancing product that must send funds directly to the cards being paid off rather than to the consumernot Trustly
  • A personal finance application that wants an accurate debt picture including auto and student loans that deposit-account aggregation does not shownot Trustly
  • A credit union offering balance transfer where the application drop-off from credentialed linking is the main constraint on volumenot Trustly

Trustly

  • An e-commerce merchant wanting a lower-cost alternative or complement to card payment acceptancenot Method Financial
  • A gaming or gambling operator needing verified, instant payouts to players' bank accountsnot Method Financial
  • A merchant wanting instant refunds processed directly to a customer's bank account rather than card reversal delaysnot Method Financial
  • A business in a market with strong open banking adoption wanting pay-by-bank as a checkout optionnot Method Financial

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Method Financial

  • Institution coverage is uneven once you move beyond major card issuers, so a lender focused on auto or student loan servicers should test its own portfolio mix rather than trust the headline institution count.
  • It reads liabilities, not cash flow, so a lender that also needs income and affordability evidence is running a second aggregator alongside it and paying twice for consumer connectivity.
  • Payoff quote accuracy and freshness are commercially load bearing, because a consolidation loan funded against a stale figure leaves a residual balance and a customer complaint, and the contractual position on that risk needs to be explicit.
  • Pricing is unpublished and split across data and payment events, which makes unit economics hard to model before volume and easy to misjudge in a product where every application triggers multiple calls.
  • Identity-based access without credentials depends on consumer consent capture being defensible, and any shift in US regulatory interpretation of permissioned data access lands directly on this model rather than on the edges of it.

Trustly

  • It is majority-owned by Nordic Capital, a private equity firm, so its long-term roadmap is ultimately oriented toward an eventual sale or IPO rather than indefinite independent operation.
  • Consumer familiarity with paying by bank transfer still lags card payments in most markets, so merchants typically see it used as a secondary option rather than a full card replacement.
  • The 1.15 to 3.15% merchant fee range is not a single published rate, so a merchant cannot know its actual cost without a sales negotiation.
  • As with all open banking-dependent payment methods, reliability depends on the consistency of the underlying banks' own APIs, which Trustly does not control.
  • Its verified payout functionality is heavily used in gaming and gambling, a sector with additional regulatory scrutiny, which is worth factoring in when evaluating vendor risk exposure by association.

Pricing, plan by plan

Method Financial

On request
  • Method API$undefined/year
    • Quoted by volume and product mix across data retrieval and payments
    • Separate pricing for liability data, payoff quotes and payment execution
    • Sandbox access available for development

Trustly

On request
  • Trustly$undefined/month
    • Typical merchant cost of 1.15% to 3.15% depending on volume and market
    • Exact rate negotiated per merchant, not published as a flat card

Which should you pick?

Choose Method Financial if

  • You need identity-based account resolution.
  • You also want liability data.
Method Financial review

Choose Trustly if

  • You need pay by bank checkout.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want instant refunds.
Trustly review

Questions people ask

Is Method Financial or Trustly better?
Neither clearly leads. Method Financial starts at On request and Trustly at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Method Financial or Trustly?
Method Financial starts at On request and Trustly at On request.
Does Method Financial or Trustly run on more platforms?
Method Financial runs on Web. Trustly runs on Web, API.
What is Method Financial best used for?
Method Financial is most often used for a debt consolidation lender that needs every card balance and payoff quote for an applicant without asking them to log into each issuer, a credit card refinancing product that must send funds directly to the cards being paid off rather than to the consumer, a personal finance application that wants an accurate debt picture including auto and student loans that deposit-account aggregation does not show, a credit union offering balance transfer where the application drop-off from credentialed linking is the main constraint on volume. Of those, a debt consolidation lender that needs every card balance and payoff quote for an applicant without asking them to log into each issuer and a credit card refinancing product that must send funds directly to the cards being paid off rather than to the consumer are not what Trustly is typically brought in for.
What can Method Financial do that Trustly cannot?
Method Financial covers Identity-based account resolution, Liability data, Payoff quotes, Direct card payoff. Trustly covers Pay by bank checkout, Instant refunds, Verified payouts, Multi-market bank connectivity.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Method Financial: How is this different from Plaid?

Plaid connects to deposit accounts with credentials and returns transactions. Method resolves liabilities from verified identity without credentials and can pay those accounts directly. Most lenders use both.

Trustly: Who owns Trustly?

Nordic Capital, a private equity firm, holds a 51.1% majority stake; Alfven & Didrikson and BlackRock hold smaller stakes.

Method Financial: Do consumers have to log in to each card issuer?

No. That is the point of the product, and removing that step is what changes conversion in consolidation and refinancing flows.

Trustly: Is Trustly going public?

It has discussed an IPO but as of its most recent comments said one remained at least a year away.

Method Financial: What does it cost?

Not published. It is quoted by volume and split across liability data, payoff quotes and payment execution.

Trustly: What does it typically cost a merchant?

Roughly 1.15% to 3.15% of transaction value depending on volume and market, negotiated per merchant.

Method Financial: Can it actually pay off a credit card?

Yes, funds are sent directly to the identified card accounts, which is what makes balance transfer and consolidation products work without account numbers.

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