# Introduction to Outbound Payments

Source: https://docs.gocardless.com/docs/send-money

# Outbound Payments

This guide provides an overview of how GoCardless handles outbound payments, covering key features, examples, and API usage to ensure you have everything you need to get started.

## What is an Outbound Payment?

Outbound Payments enable merchants to send money using the GoCardless API.

Why "Outbound Payments"? Unlike collection payments, where funds move from customers to merchants, the money flow for sending money is reversed — funds are transferred from the merchant's account to the recipient's account. To clearly reflect this reversed flow, we named the resource "Outbound Payment".

## Availability

| Geo   | Currency | Scheme            |
| ----- | -------- | ----------------- |
| 🇬🇧 UK | GBP      | `faster_payments` |

## What's next?

  
#### [Payment Account](/docs/send-money/payment-account)

Fund and manage the payment account used to send outbound payments.

  
#### [API Request Signing](/docs/send-money/api-request-signing)

Set up request signing to secure your API calls.

  
#### [Send an Outbound Payment](/docs/send-money/send-an-outbound-payment)

Add a recipient and initiate your first outbound payment.

  
#### [Tracking Outbound Payments](/docs/send-money/tracking-outbound-payments)

Monitor payment status and lifecycle events.