How Pay by Bank works
Money straight from their bank to yours.
Pay by Bank uses open banking — technology every major UK bank is required to support, overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority. No card, no card network, no card fees. Here's the whole thing, honestly explained.
The screen shows a code
The customer chooses Pay by Bank on the terminal. A QR code appears with the amount already set.
They scan it with their phone
Their own banking app opens — the same app they use every day. The amount and your organisation's name are filled in.
They approve with face or fingerprint
The bank checks it's really them, the same way it checks any payment. Nothing to type, no card details anywhere.
The money is in your bank
It travels over Faster Payments, directly from their account to yours — usually in seconds, rarely more than two hours, any day of the year. Their name is on the payment.
Bank to bank — our fee 0.5%, not our 1.6% + 10p card rate.
Press play — 30 seconds, the whole flow.
What open banking is
Built by regulation, not by a startup.
FCA-regulated
Open banking payments in the UK may only be initiated by firms authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. tapbanc's card payments are processed by Stripe, an FCA-authorised electronic money institution, and every Pay by Bank payment is initiated by an FCA-authorised provider.
The bank stays in charge
No one ever sees the customer's login or card details. Every payment is approved inside their own banking app, with the same face or fingerprint check as any transfer.
Every major bank supports it
In 2017 the competition regulator ordered the nine biggest UK banks and building societies to open up payments; open banking went live in January 2018, and virtually every bank with a mobile app has joined since. Over 13 million people in the UK now use it. If they bank on their phone, it works.
Works with their bank
- Barclays
- HSBC
- Lloyds
- NatWest
- Santander
- Nationwide
- Monzo
- Starling
- Revolut
- Halifax
- TSB
- Chase
And most other UK banks and building societies with a mobile banking app. 13.3 million people in the UK were active open banking users by March 2025, up 40% in a year (The Payments Association, citing Open Banking Ltd data).
The honest bit
What it costs, and why it's cheaper.
A card payment travels through the card network, and several parties take a percentage on the way. A Pay by Bank payment is a direct bank transfer with a payment authorisation on top — fewer hands, so a smaller fee. That's the entire trick. We charge 0.5% for Pay by Bank, 1.6% + 10p for cards, and both are on the pricing page.
Watch it happen on a real terminal.
The demo is the convincing part — a real payment, your account, money arriving mid-conversation.