TrueLayer Blog: payments advice, news & Insights

Blog

The complete guide to Pay by Bank: what is it and how does it work?

The complete guide to Pay by Bank, the fast-growing online payment method, offering an alternative to cards. Should your business be offering it at checkout?

What is Pay by Bank header

Featured articles

black friday promotions

Your Black Friday payments checklist for champions of the checkout

Live up to your customer's payment expectations and reign champion of the checkout this peak season.

VRP is back on the agenda

Recurring payments

VRP is back on the agenda for 2025

Find out why VRP (AKA Bank on file) is finally having its breakout moment in 2025.

Hey, I'm Andy from TrueLayer, and I'm going to try and tell you everything you need to know about Pay by Bank—in just ninety seconds. Let’s start the clock. Let’s keep it simple. What is Pay by Bank? It’s a payment method that lets you pay directly from your bank account via your banking app—with zero need for card networks. That could mean buying pizza, paying for flights, or just about anything in between. And it’s actually pretty easy—and very quick. It looks a bit like this: start by tapping the Pay by Bank button, then choose your bank from the list. If you’ve used it before, we can even preselect your preferred bank. You then review the payment, and you’re seamlessly redirected to your bank app to approve it using secure biometrics. That’s Face ID or a fingerprint, to you and me. And that’s it—success. But no time to relax—we're on the clock! Now, this might be the first time you’re hearing about it, but every month in the UK, 27 million payments are made using Pay by Bank. And most people who haven’t tried it yet say they’d be happy to—if given the option. On the merchant side, nine out of ten businesses are already planning to adopt it in one way or another. So what’s in it for businesses? Number one: more potential sales. No cards means no long card numbers, no clunky 3DS2—just a smoother experience from start to finish. And it converts. Number two: because payment details are pre-populated and verified with biometrics, things like card-not-present fraud, chargebacks, and authorized push payment fraud are virtually eliminated. Number three: lower costs. Without all the intermediaries and manual admin, the total cost of Pay by Bank is typically lower than card payments. I'm running out of time—one last benefit: instant refunds. And trust me, shoppers love instant refunds. And breathe. That was a lot to cram into ninety seconds. If you’d like to take your time and learn more about Pay by Bank—and why brands like Just Eat Takeaway, lastminute.com, Ryanair, and Papa John’s already offer it at checkout—you can read our in-depth guide. There should be a link on screen now. And that’s it. Thanks for watching.

Everything you need to know about Pay by Bank in 90 seconds

Get up to speed on Pay by Bank, how it works and its main benefits in just 90 seconds.

Viewing:

Background image

Engineering at TrueLayer: the wabi-sabi way

Our engineering principles guide us as we scale

Background image

Is 2021 the end of cards?

It’s time to reflect on the year in open banking and make one prediction for 2021.

UI from an investment app showing an instant bank payment

How to build a better investor experience – new YouGov data

The payment innovations that wealthtech users want

Coins moving in and our of portals

5 reasons to rethink your igaming payments strategy — new research from YouGov

New report shows how payments drive player decisions.

Abstract UI text and UI elements

UX/UI guides: how to increase open banking adoption

The best UX/UI practices to boost your product’s open banking conversion. Here's how...

two chat bubbles talking

In conversation with tickr: how open banking is supporting ethical investing

tickr Product Manager, Toby Butterworth, explains how open banking is creating value for millennial investors.

Collage of design components

Design at TrueLayer: our shared principles and values

Our secret sauce for building a close-knit design community

Background image

Compliance & reg

What the FCA’s latest eIDAS update means for TPPs?

The FCA has ruled on an alternative to eIDAS certificates for third party providers, Read more about TPP certification and how it affects you.

TrueTalk with Ossama

Meet Ossama, father, boardgame nerd, travel enthusiast — and TrueLayer’s new Chief Product Officer.

Our response to HM Treasury’s Payments Landscape Review

What’s next for UK payments and how we can improve the network for businesses and consumers?

Money moving through a digital network

The ultimate guide to open banking examples and use cases

Read our ultimate guide to open banking use cases & examples, analysing thousands of API calls to find the most promising uses. Learn more here.

two chat bubbles talking

In conversation with Nutmeg: open banking, Covid-19 and Brexit

Nutmeg Product Manager, Charlie Masters, talks about the value of open banking for its customers.

Browse by category

Get started

Talk to us

Curious about where our open banking payments network could take your business?

Start building

Create an account now to explore our APIs.

Keep exploring

More great content from our team