A deferred payment is a payment whose collection is scheduled to happen later than the moment of sale. It might be a balance due closer to departure, a scheduled instalment, a buy-now-pay-later arrangement, or simply terms-based credit between two businesses. Deferred payments depend on the merchant being able to capture the money on the agreed date, which usually requires a tokenised card, a mandate or a confirmed funding source.
Travel payments glossary
Deferred payment
A payment whose collection is scheduled for a later date than the moment of sale.
Why it matters in travel
Deferred payment is the rule rather than the exception in travel — deposits at booking, balances at six weeks out, schedules of supplier payments, agency commission terms. Every one of those deferred amounts needs to be reliably collected without manual chasing or risk of expired cards on the due date.
For travel businesses, deferred payments are a structural part of the cash-flow profile. A holiday booked in January with the balance due in May means five months of operational risk on every single booking — and across thousands of bookings the cumulative recovery exposure is significant. The mechanics of how those payments are collected are not nice-to-haves.
The travel businesses that handle deferred payments well have schedules, tokens, retries and escalation paths automated against the booking, so the customer experiences a seamless balance moment and finance does not need to chase. The businesses that handle them badly enter every supplier deadline knowing they will need to chase, and reliably lose a percentage of bookings to expired cards along the way.
How felloh helps
felloh keeps deposit, balance and instalment state attached to the booking so deferred payments collect on the day they should, with the right authentication evidence, and exceptions surface as actionable work.
Where this shows up in payment collection.
Deferred payment touches more than one workflow at felloh. Start with the pages most travel teams reach for next.
- Payment Collection
Card, open banking, payment links, deposits and instalments — captured against the booking.
Explore - Payment Links
Shareable, authenticated payment links so customers pay against a specific booking without keying card details.
Explore - Embedded Checkout
Booking-aware checkout that keeps card data out of your systems and the payment trail tied to the booking.
Explore
More on collecting payments in travel.
Real-world context from the felloh team and customers, written for travel finance and operations.
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UpdatesSetting up payment links manually
See how felloh connects all of your payments, cards, open banking and direct deposits with your bookings
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UpdatesMaking multi channel payments work across travel systems
Multi-channel friction in travel usually sits between booking, payment and finance systems. Connected payments keep finance teams in control.
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Connect the dots.
See how payments, settlement, refunds and reporting evidence connect around every booking.