Pay by Bank in the UK: what a foreign store should know before adding it

The UK is a card market that is starting to change. Most online shoppers still pay with a debit card, typed in or held in a phone wallet, and that is unlikely to shift soon. But in February 2026 Amazon and eBay both added Pay by Bank to their UK checkouts, which put it in front of far more shoppers than before.

This article covers how UK shoppers pay today, how Pay by Bank works over Faster Payments, what it changes for refunds and complaints, where variable recurring payments stand, and how a store outside the UK can accept it. The United Kingdom guide covers tax and consumer rules. For the same topic in other markets, see account-to-account and instant payments.

How do UK shoppers pay online?

By card, first and foremost. UK Finance’s UK Payment Markets 2026 report counts 49.7 billion payments in 2025. Debit cards were the most used method with 26.6 billion payments, and cards overall made up 64%. It says about 45.9 million people, or 80% of UK adults, bought online in 2025, and that cards remain the main way people pay online, directly or through mobile wallets.

Worldpay’s data breaks that down by online spending:

Method	Share of UK online spending	How the shopper confirms
Cards entered directly	46% in 2025	Card details, with bank authentication where required
Digital wallets	About 40% of e-commerce value	Face, fingerprint or passcode on the device
Buy now, pay later	8% in 2025	Provider login and credit decision
Account-to-account, including Pay by Bank	6% in 2025	Banking app

Source: Worldpay, 2026. The account-to-account figure is from Worldpay’s report as cited by RedCompass Labs, and is shown there as a share of e-commerce transactions.

So cards and card-funded wallets cover most of the market. UK Finance counts about 37.6 million consumers registered for at least one mobile wallet in 2025, and around one adult in five (22%) used buy now, pay later that year, with 25 to 34 year olds the heaviest users at 35%.

For a foreign store, the first job is a good card setup: Apple Pay and Google Pay next to the card form, prices in GBP and working authentication. The Financial Conduct Authority says strong customer authentication rules have applied in the UK since 14 September 2019, unless an exemption applies. Our article on 3-D Secure exemptions covers the options. If approval on UK cards is low, read about local and cross-border acquiring before you add anything new.

What is Pay by Bank, and how does it work?

Pay by Bank lets a shopper pay directly from a bank account without entering card details. Open Banking Limited, the body that runs the UK’s open banking standards, describes four steps:

1. The shopper chooses Pay by Bank at checkout.
2. They select their bank from the participating UK banks.
3. They approve the payment in their banking app, using Face ID, a fingerprint or a passcode.
4. The bank sends the payment through Faster Payments, and the shopper returns to the merchant with confirmation.

Behind the scenes, a regulated Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP) connects the merchant to the bank through open banking interfaces. The shopper does not share a card number, and the merchant does not store one.

Faster Payments is the rail underneath. Pay.UK says it handled 5.55 billion transactions worth GBP 4.84 trillion in 2025 and runs day and night, every day of the year. It supports payments of up to GBP 1 million, but limits at individual banks and building societies vary. That limit is not what a shopper will always get. Stripe, for example, allows Pay by Bank from 0.50 to 10,000 GBP by default, and asks businesses to contact it for more.

Open banking volumes are growing. Open Banking Limited reported more than 1 billion cumulative payments by July 2026, and 40.16 million in June 2026 alone: 32.43 million single payments and 7.73 million variable recurring payments. These figures do not separate online shopping, so read them as the health of the rail, not as checkout share.

Who is using it at checkout?

Amazon is the headline. It added Pay by Bank in the UK on 10 February 2026, with TrueLayer as its partner. Customers add it as a payment method, choose their bank at checkout and approve in their banking app. RedCompass Labs reports that eBay followed later in February, and that lastminute.com has offered it since 2018, with Ryanair, Papa Johns and Just Eat also named.

Two details of Amazon’s launch are worth copying. First, it says verified refunds reach the customer’s bank account within minutes. Second, it covers Pay by Bank purchases under its A-to-Z Guarantee and standard returns policy, alongside protections under the UK Payment Services Regulations for up to 13 months. That is a merchant choosing to answer the shopper’s question: what happens if something goes wrong?

What changes for refunds and complaints?

Pay by Bank is not a card payment, and the differences fall mainly on customer service.

No chargeback. Stripe says no dispute process exists that can result in a chargeback for failing to provide adequate goods or services, because the customer must authenticate in their banking app. That removes a cost and a fraud route, but it also removes a protection some shoppers rely on. Open Banking Limited’s own page cautions that protections differ from card payments.

Refunds are payments back. Stripe allows refunds for up to 730 days, full or partial, sent to the same bank account. A refund can fail if the account has closed, and then you need another way to repay the customer. Our article on refunds across local methods covers how to plan for that.

Late funds are rare but real. Stripe says a payment can occasionally be authorised while the funds miss the expected settlement window. The payment then fails, and if the money arrives afterwards, Stripe returns it automatically. Do not ship on the browser redirect. Wait for the final status by webhook.

Cost claims need checking. Open Banking Limited lists lower processing costs, less fraud and fewer failed cards as merchant benefits, but it does not put numbers on them. Get a price from your provider and compare it with your blended card cost, including chargebacks.

So publish a plain returns promise near the Pay by Bank option. A shopper who has never used it wants to know what happens if the parcel does not arrive.

Where do variable recurring payments stand?

This section is market context rather than a checkout decision for today. A variable recurring payment (VRP) is an automated, recurring account-to-account payment.

There are two kinds. Open Banking Limited notes that banks were mandated in 2022 to support VRP for sweeping, which covers moving money between a person’s own accounts. The 7.73 million VRPs in its June 2026 figures are of this type. The Financial Conduct Authority says VRPs account for around 16% of open banking payments, according to Lewis Silkin, while Open Banking Limited’s June figures work out at about 19%.

The commercial version is newer. The UK Payments Initiative, an industry-led company, launched a commercial VRP scheme on 2 June 2026, with a shared rulebook and commercial model. Osborne Clarke reports that its phase 1 use cases are utility payments, financial services payments, and payments to local and central government, and that the FCA called the launch “a major step forward”. The FCA has also indicated that it will consult on a longer-term open banking framework by the end of 2026, subject to legislation.

General retail is not in that first phase. RedCompass Labs estimated that e-commerce would follow at least 12 to 18 months after the first wave, and that is the author’s view, not a published date. Stripe’s Pay by Bank Recurring, in private preview, takes a different path: an initial Pay by Bank payment combined with a Bacs Direct Debit mandate. UK Finance says future growth in account-to-account payments may be shaped by VRPs, so check again in 2027.

How can a foreign store accept Pay by Bank?

Through a provider, not by connecting to each bank. Stripe’s documentation is a useful example, and other providers set their own terms:

• Business location: about 35 countries, including EU members, Switzerland, Norway, the US, Canada, Australia and Singapore.
• Customers: those with UK bank accounts pay in GBP. Location means where the bank account is held, not where the shopper is.
• Banks: 16 UK brands are listed, including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest, Revolut and Santander.
• Limits: 0.50 to 10,000 GBP by default.
• Not supported: manual capture, and Stripe Checkout in subscription mode.

Before you commit, send these questions to each provider:

1. Can you onboard our entity for UK Pay by Bank, in our country? Ask for this in writing.
2. Who is the regulated payment initiation provider? It may be your provider or a partner.
3. Which banks are live, and what share of UK current accounts do they cover? Bank coverage decides who can use the button.
4. What are your amount limits? Compare them with your largest orders.
5. What is the pricing? Compare a flat fee or percentage with your all-in card cost.
6. When do GBP funds reach us? Ask about settlement currency, FX margin and timing.
7. How do refunds work? Ask whether they run through the same API, how long they take and what happens when one fails.
8. How do you report failed and abandoned payments? Separate customers who left the banking app from banks that refused.
9. What does the shopper see on desktop? Ask how the flow moves from the browser to a phone.

A sensible first test is a segment where card cost or failure hurts most, such as higher-value baskets or returning customers. That is our judgement, not a published benchmark. Show the option to UK customers only, measure completion against cards, and keep cards as the fallback. Our guide to which local methods to add first sets out how to score it against other candidates.

How does Omno support Pay by Bank in the UK?

Omno puts the providers you choose behind one integration, and each provider onboards you separately. Where a connected provider offers Pay by Bank, your team can add it in the no-code checkout builder, show it by country, currency and amount, and set routing rules for each payment, with no release needed. If a provider is unavailable or rejects the request, the payment moves to the next provider in the rule until one accepts. The hosted checkout page shows how it works.