The Core Platform Objects
Entity
A user’s identity in Method. An Entity represents one individual (or business) and serves as the root object for all accounts, verifications, and transactions. Each user in your application maps to exactly one Entity.
Identity Verification (IDV)
Verifies that a user is who they claim to be before Method can access credit data or process payments. IDV includes phone verification and identity verification and acts as a one-time gate that unlocks downstream products.
Connect
Discovers what a user owes. Using a verified Entity, Connect performs a soft credit pull to automatically identify liabilities across financial institutions, giving your application visibility into a user’s full debt profile.
Accounts
The financial objects your application interacts with. Accounts include discovered liabilities (credit cards, loans, etc.) and funding sources used for payments. They are the objects you monitor, update, and pay against.
Updates
Provides fresh data about accounts. Updates deliver the latest balances, due dates, minimum payments, interest rates, and more through credit report snapshots or direct institutional connections.
Payments
Moves money to pay down liabilities. You initiate a payment from a verified funding source, and Method handles the full lifecycle: submission, processing, delivery to the creditor, and confirmation.
The Dependency Chain
These concepts build on each other in a natural progression. Not every integration uses every product, a monitoring-only product might skip Payments entirely, while a paydown-focused product might use all of them. But the dependency chain means you always start with an Entity, verify their identity, and connect their accounts before you can take action.Typical End-to-End Flows
| Flow | Path |
|---|---|
| Debt discovery | Entity → IDV → Connect → Accounts → Updates |
| Debt paydown | Entity → IDV → Connect → Accounts → Payments → Updates |
| Monitoring | Entity → IDV → Connect → Accounts → Subscriptions → Webhooks |
Using Opal? Opal handles Entity creation, identity verification, and account discovery in a single embedded flow. If you’re using Opal, you don’t build the first three steps yourself — Opal orchestrates them for you, and your integration picks up at the Accounts stage.
Additional Products
Beyond the six core concepts, Method offers specialized products that enrich the data and capabilities available on connected accounts.Commonly Used
Credit Score
Credit score retrieval and monitoring, essential for financial wellness products that want to show users their score alongside their debt profile.
Attributes
Delivers structured credit health metrics (e.g., credit card usage, payment history), useful for building personalized insights, recommendations, or risk assessments.
Card Brand
Retrieves the specific card product name and card art (e.g., “Chase Sapphire Preferred” with the actual card image), great for building visually rich account displays.
Specialized
Vehicles
Enriches auto loan accounts with vehicle details (make, model, VIN), valuable for auto-focused lending or insurance products.
Payoffs
Retrieves payoff quote amounts for auto loans, including per diem interest, critical for auto refinance or payoff products that need accurate, time-sensitive amounts.
Sensitive
Provides gated access to full account numbers and other sensitive data, available by approval only, for use cases that require raw account credentials.
Payment Instruments
Creates reusable payment configurations (card credentials, ACH details, network tokens), enables repeated payment scenarios without re-collecting credentials each time.
API Reference
Full endpoint documentation for every object described above.