Getting Started

Every commerce integration begins the same way: represent your customer, verify their identity, and discover their credit cards. This 3-step flow is the shared foundation for Wallet Onboarding, Preauth Signals, and Wallet Intelligence.

Create an Entity

Every end user maps to an Entity in Method. Create one with the user’s full name and phone number, and provide additional identity information such as date of birth, email address, or SSN when available to improve match rates. This is the foundational object that verification, card discovery, and all downstream products attach to.

curl https://production.methodfi.com/entities \
  -X POST \
  -H "Method-Version: 2026-03-30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_WyZEWVfTcH7GqmPzUPk65Vjc" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "individual",
    "individual": {
      "first_name": "Emily",
      "last_name": "Park",
      "phone": "+13105550789",
      "email": "emily.park@email.com",
      "dob": "1995-11-08"
    },
    "address": {
      "line1": "789 Sunset Blvd",
      "line2": null,
      "city": "Los Angeles",
      "state": "CA",
      "zip": "90028"
    }
  }'

{
  "id": "ent_BzirqpLEm3BW7",
  "type": "individual",
  "individual": {
    "first_name": "Emily",
    "last_name": "Park",
    "phone": "+13105550789",
    "dob": "1995-11-08",
    "email": "emily.park@email.com",
    "ssn_4": null,
    "ssn": null
  },
  "error": null,
  "address": {
    "line1": "789 Sunset Blvd",
    "line2": null,
    "city": "Los Angeles",
    "state": "CA",
    "zip": "90028"
  },
  "status": "incomplete",
  "verification": {
    "identity": {
      "verified": false,
      "matched": false,
      "latest_verification_session": null,
      "methods": [
        "element",
        "kba"
      ]
    },
    "phone": {
      "verified": false,
      "latest_verification_session": null,
      "methods": [
        "sms",
        "sna",
        "byo_sms"
      ]
    }
  },
  "connect": null,
  "credit_score": null,
  "products": [
    "identity"
  ],
  "restricted_products": [
    "connect",
    "credit_score",
    "attribute"
  ],
  "subscriptions": [],
  "available_subscriptions": [
    "connect",
    "credit_score"
  ],
  "restricted_subscriptions": [],
  "metadata": null,
  "created_at": "2025-12-10T14:22:31.024Z",
  "updated_at": "2025-12-10T14:22:31.024Z"
}

The Entity is created in incomplete status. Before you can discover Emily’s credit cards, you need to verify her identity.

Verify Identity

Method requires phone verification before card discovery. Verify the customer’s phone number using either Method OTP (Method sends and verifies the one-time passcode) or Bring Your Own OTP (you verify the phone number yourself and provide the verification result to Method). The example below initiates a Method-sent SMS verification session, which sends a one-time code to Emily’s phone number on record.

curl https://production.methodfi.com/entities/ent_BzirqpLEm3BW7/verification_sessions \
  -X POST \
  -H "Method-Version: 2026-03-30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_WyZEWVfTcH7GqmPzUPk65Vjc" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "phone",
    "method": "sms",
    "sms": {}
  }'

{
  "id": "evf_nKLp7WzQdR4mF",
  "entity_id": "ent_BzirqpLEm3BW7",
  "status": "in_progress",
  "type": "phone",
  "method": "sms",
  "sms": {},
  "error": null,
  "created_at": "2025-12-10T14:23:12.271Z",
  "updated_at": "2025-12-10T14:23:12.271Z"
}

After Emily receives and submits the SMS code, the verification session transitions to verified. Once both phone and identity verification are complete, the Entity status updates to active and Connect becomes available.

For a complete overview of all verification methods (SMS, SNA, BYO-SMS, KBA), see the Identity Verification guide.

Connect Credit Cards

With verification complete, call Connect to discover Emily’s credit cards via a soft-pull credit report. This has no impact on the user’s credit score.For commerce use cases, the key discovery is credit cards: these are the accounts you’ll use for wallet onboarding, preauth signals, and wallet intelligence.

curl https://production.methodfi.com/entities/ent_BzirqpLEm3BW7/connect \
  -X POST \
  -H "Method-Version: 2026-03-30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_WyZEWVfTcH7GqmPzUPk65Vjc"

{
  "id": "cxn_7hTmRvXkYpN3w",
  "entity_id": "ent_BzirqpLEm3BW7",
  "status": "completed",
  "accounts": [
    "acc_LxwEqNicr66yP",
    "acc_4m9amk4KFiaQX",
    "acc_XtKTpHLGhD9Qn",
    "acc_GAzrD99cUqGEN"
  ],
  "requested_products": [],
  "requested_subscriptions": [],
  "error": null,
  "created_at": "2025-12-10T14:24:45.645Z",
  "updated_at": "2025-12-10T14:24:45.645Z"
}

Method discovered 4 credit card accounts for Emily:

Account ID	Card
`acc_LxwEqNicr66yP`	Chase Sapphire Preferred (Visa)
`acc_4m9amk4KFiaQX`	Amex Gold (Amex)
`acc_XtKTpHLGhD9Qn`	Citi Double Cash (Mastercard)
`acc_GAzrD99cUqGEN`	Capital One Venture X (Visa)

These accounts are now ready for every Commerce use case.

What’s Next

Wallet Onboarding

Enrich cards with brand art and retrieve payment credentials to render a complete wallet.

Preauth Signals

Evaluate payment readiness before authorization and optimize payment retries.

Wallet Intelligence

Retrieve wallet-level insights to personalize customer experiences.

Entities

Identity Verification

Connect

Accounts

Updates

Payments

Additional Products

Use Cases: Commerce

Use Cases: Lending

Use Cases: PFM

Getting Started

What’s Next

Wallet Onboarding

Preauth Signals

Wallet Intelligence

​What’s Next

Wallet Onboarding

Preauth Signals

Wallet Intelligence

What’s Next