# Call the API directly

[Choose an integration method](https://devportal-simpay-sbx.winkpg.io/docs/decide/integration-method.md): Three questions about where your customers enter their card details, and what that means for the PCI evidence you have to produce every year.

Your systems receive the card number and send it to this platform themselves.

**Your answers so far**

- Where does the payment happen? Online, or over the phone.
- Who renders the fields your customer types the card into? My own systems, which receive the card number.

**What to build**

Post the card details to the payments API from your server. Choose this only when something about your product genuinely requires it, such as a call centre taking card numbers by phone or a checkout you cannot load our fields into. It is the most work to build and by far the most to prove every year.

**What this means for PCI**

Typically eligible for **SAQ D**. Your systems transmit the card number, so everything they touch is in scope. Above a certain volume, an on-site assessment by a QSA takes the place of the questionnaire.

This is guidance rather than a compliance determination. Which questionnaire you are eligible for depends on your full environment, so confirm it with your QSA or your acquirer before you rely on it.

**Worth knowing**

- Every system the card number passes through is in scope, including logs, queues, and backups.
- Ask whether one of the other two methods covers the case before committing to this one. Moving off it later means rebuilding the checkout.

**Where to go next**

- [Quickstart: direct API](https://devportal-simpay-sbx.winkpg.io/docs/guides/quickstart-direct-api.md)
- [Getting started with the API](https://devportal-simpay-sbx.winkpg.io/docs/guides/api-getting-started.md)
- [Blueprint: accept your first payment](https://devportal-simpay-sbx.winkpg.io/docs/blueprints/accept-your-first-payment.md)

- [Start over](https://devportal-simpay-sbx.winkpg.io/docs/decide/integration-method.md): go back to the first question.

## See also

- [All documentation](https://devportal-simpay-sbx.winkpg.io/llms.txt): the machine-readable index of every public page on this site.