Account-to-Card Statuses (Instant Disbursements)

Last updated: August 7, 2026

A flowchart showing Astra's behavior depending on account-to-card routine status is shown above.
A flowchart showing Astra's behavior depending on account-to-card routine status is shown above.

Account-to-Card Routines, also known as Instant Disbursements is Astra's Push-to-Card solution that enables your Users to create instant “push” payments to an external Debit Card, with real time settlement at a scalable cost structure. Additionally, you can optionally apply programmatic fees to the payment to create a new source of revenue for your business.

Instant Disbursements support both me-to-me and peer-to-peer transfers. In just a few clicks, a user can authorize your product for faster payments, link their debit card, and initiate an instant disbursement or withdrawal.

How It Works

The Transfer will initiate an OCT (original credit transaction) to the destination debit Card specified in the Routine payload.

  • If the OCT fails with a debit decline code, the transfer fails immediately (transfer status: failed). Astra doesn't process money movement against the source account, and the parent Routine object also receives a status of failed.

  • If the OCT succeeds (segment status: processed), Astra's system initiates money movement against the source account.

Source account settlement options vary based on details you specify in the Routine.

Source Account Settlement Options

  1. Source Account is a bank account.

    1. Gross Debit Mode

      • Set settlement_mode: gross_debit in the Routine payload.

      • Astra creates a per-transfer Same Day ACH debit. If the OCT fails, Astra cancels this ACH debit.

      • For full details, see Instant Disbursements: Gross Debit Mode.

    2. Net Debit Mode

      • Set settlement_mode: net_debit in the Routine payload.

      • Astra batches multiple transfers into a single ACH debit and processes it the next business day.

      • If the OCT fails, Astra doesn't assign the transfer to an ACH debit batch.

      • For full details, see Instant Disbursements: Net Debit Mode.

  2. Source Account is a Payment Instrument.

    See FBO accounts for setup details.

  • Astra processes a book transfer between the source account and your program's payment instrument.

  • This segment doesn't appear in the transfer segments results, because it happens internally within Astra.

  • These funds become available in your program's payment instrument once the transfer status changes to processed.

Note: Astra processes Same Day ACH debits during normal NACHA operating hours. Astra doesn't process ACH debits on weekends, and generally doesn't process them on federal holidays.

Transfer Segments

Fetching Transfer Segment details can provide confirmation on whether or not the OCT To confirm whether the OCT succeeded, fetch the transfer segment details.

For gross debit mode, you can track the processing of the ACH debit segment.

If the ACH debit is returned days later, the transfer status updates to failed. The parent Routine object's status doesn't change.