Hey @paul_earnest,
The difference between Visa Checkout and Visa Direct is that Visa Checkout acts like a virtual wallet where Visa Direct does P2P payments and funds disbursements. Below is some more information on what each API does. For POS payments, I'm also suggesting you to look at CyberSource Payments.
Payment Methods APIs - https://developer.visa.com/site/payment-methods
For Visa Checkout, the consumers are the ones logging in for their card information to be pulled using the Visa Checkout API. Visa Checkout is a digital payment service designed to simplify the checkout experience using a secure, single sign-on across channels and devices using a customer's preferred payment method. When you add the Visa Checkout button to your site, your customers can check out with a user name and password.
Visa Checkout Transaction Flow:
When you integrate the Visa Checkout button on your website checkout page and the customer clicks it to finish up a transaction, the customer will at that point be able to either enroll or simply sign in to retrieve their saved card. The card details and address information will be saved in Visa Checkout's data service, which will be retrieved. You can then use the retrieved data to help the customer confirm a purchase. The authorization request will then be sent by your gateway for credit card processing. This is why; you must have a merchant service provider and gateway to integrate Visa Checkout. The merchant may use one of our partners. This is the website for our partners - https://globalcheckout.visa.com/visacheckoutPartners
Visa Checkout - https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/visa_checkout
Visa Checkout Documentation - https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/visa_checkout/docs
Visa Direct does P2P payments and funds disbursements. Take a look at the product features in the Why Use It list below.
Visa Direct would be a good fit for your QR code use case. The consumer initiates a payment by scanning a QR code at the merchant site, tapping an NFC device, or key entering the merchant and transaction details into their Mobile Push Payment-enabled feature phone or Mobile Push Payment smart phone application. The consumer's issuer then uses the Mobile Push Payment API to submit a push payment transaction into Visa that will transfer the payment amount from the consumer's Visa card to the merchant's Visa card. When the push payment is received by the merchant's issuer (acquirer), the merchant is notified that the amount of the payment has been deposited into their Visa account. When the merchant issuer sends the approved authorization for the push payment back to Visa, the consumer's issuer notifies them via the Mobile Push Payment application that the transaction is complete.
Visa Direct - https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/visa_direct/docs
Please see additional Visa Direct API information by navigating to the link below for information on QR code (refer to QR code workflow diagram below).
How to Use Visa Direct > Using Mobile Push Payment API - https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/visa_direct/docs-how-to#section4
Visa Direct > Using Mobile Push Payment API - https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/visa_direct/docs#using_mobile_push_payment_api
Using Mobile Push Payment SDK - https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/visa_direct/docs#using_mobile_push_payment_sdk
Per your use case on POS payments, I recommend the CyberSource Payments API to be a good fit. With CyberSource, you can process credit, debit and gift cards across the globe and across multiple channels with scalability and security. CyberSource supports an extensive list of payment cards and offers a wide choice of gateways and acquiring banks, all through one connection. We have an expert team that manages questions specific to CyberSource. Please reach out to the CyberSource team directly using the phone number provided below.
CyberSource Overview - https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/cybersource
CyberSource Documentation - https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/cybersource/docs
CyberSource Support - 800-709-7779
Visa Token Services has Card-On-File" (COF) functionality available on the Portal and these are the APIs that enable provisioning and use of tokens for HCE-based contactless (NFC) payments and for in-app purchases using tokens provisioned to a mobile device. Please see the Visa Token Service documentation provided below.
VTS Overview - https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/vts
