> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.younegotiate.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# External Services

> Third-party services that support identity verification, communications, address validation, payment security, and payment processing.

YouNegotiate relies on approved external services for specialized platform capabilities. Each integration must remain scoped to the correct creditor, consumer, and workflow.

## Service Responsibilities

| Service                     | Platform responsibility                                                              |
| --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Middesk                     | Verify creditor business identity and Tax ID during onboarding                       |
| Smarty                      | Validate and standardize creditor and consumer addresses                             |
| SendGrid                    | Deliver email and report delivery, open, and bounce events                           |
| Twilio                      | Deliver SMS, report message status, and process supported opt-in and opt-out replies |
| Basis Theory                | Tokenize and vault consumer payment information                                      |
| Stripe platform billing     | Collect and reuse payment methods for creditor membership and platform charges       |
| Creditor merchant processor | Process consumer settlement and payment-plan transactions for the correct creditor   |

## Identity And Address Services

* Middesk verification must complete before protected creditor onboarding workflows become available.
* The verified creditor identity becomes the permanent ECO Address used throughout the platform.
* Address validation should standardize usable addresses without silently replacing verified identity information.
* Pending or failed verification must never be treated as approved.

## Communication Services

* Email and SMS delivery must run through background processing.
* Provider callbacks update tracking only after the provider reports the corresponding event.
* SMS opt-out and opt-in commands must update future communication eligibility.
* Invalid, incomplete, or unverifiable callback data must not create a successful delivery state.

For consent, delivery, tracking, and webhook behavior, see [Communication Delivery & Webhooks](/portals/creditor/background-processing/communication-delivery-and-webhooks).

## Payment Services

* Basis Theory stores payment tokens and payment metadata; raw payment credentials must not be stored by YouNegotiate.
* Stripe platform billing is used for creditor membership and platform charges.
* Consumer payments use the merchant processor configured for the owning creditor.
* Membership billing and consumer-payment processing must remain separate.
* Provider ownership, amount, currency, and payment state must be validated before platform records are updated.

## Operational Rules

* A provider timeout or failure must not be recorded as a successful platform action.
* Provider responses and callbacks must update only the matching creditor, consumer, payment, or communication record.
* Sensitive credentials, full payment details, and personal contact data must not appear in logs or user-facing errors.
* Retryable failures should remain distinguishable from permanent validation failures.