Pay by Bank from allpay

Overview

Pay by Bank from allpay lets customers make account-to-account payments through Open Banking, authorising them in their banking app or online banking. It is aimed chiefly at organisations collecting rent, bills or other regular payments at scale. Its bank-led checkout avoids card entry and keeps sensitive account details with the customer’s bank; organisations that need Gateway Plus should wait until that integration is supported.

Key features

• Bank-authorised checkout: Customers select their bank and approve a payment in their bank’s app or online service. The organisation does not handle their sensitive account details, a useful boundary for teams taking payments across many customer accounts.
• Near-instant confirmation and settlement: Allpay describes confirmation as near instant and settlement as instant. That can make payment status visible quickly to both sides.
• Fewer card-entry failure points: With no card details to type, expired cards, incorrect entries and manual input errors are less likely to interrupt checkout. Allpay says this can reduce failed and abandoned transactions, though it does not promise to eliminate them.
• Potentially lower processing costs: The account-to-account route bypasses traditional card networks, which Allpay says can help lower costs. The benefit is difficult to weigh without a published rate.
• Security credentials: Allpay describes the payment method as FCA-regulated and says it is PCI DSS compliant. It also states that it adheres to ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001, ISO 45001 and ISO 50001 standards.

Pricing

Pay by Bank is a paid service with custom pricing, available by contacting allpay’s sales team. There is no published plan comparison or rate to help an organisation estimate whether the potential savings will outweigh its payment costs, so a sales discussion is part of evaluating the fit.

Platforms

The service is listed for Android, iOS and web. Allpay says it is rolling out through the allpayments app and online payment journeys using hosted payment pages. Gateway Plus support is coming soon, with no release date given. Organisations relying on Gateway Plus for their checkout should look elsewhere until that support arrives.

Who it's for

Housing associations, local authorities, rent and income collection teams, utilities and billing organisations are the clearest fit, especially when they handle high volumes of regular payments. The bank-led flow may suit organisations seeking to reduce card-entry friction while keeping customer bank details out of their own payment handling. Allpay was established in 1994; its May 2026 announcement says its platform supports 5.5 million end users and processes more than 90 million transactions annually.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Customers authorise through their own bank, so the organisation does not handle sensitive account details.
• Pro: Removing card entry avoids expired-card and manual-entry errors that can lead to failed or abandoned payments.
• Pro: Near-instant confirmation and instant settlement give payment teams a quick indication that funds have moved.
• Con: Custom pricing and no published rate make it hard to compare costs before contacting sales.
• Con: Gateway Plus support is still coming, so organisations needing that integration cannot use this payment method through it yet.

Alternatives

Open Banking Payment Platforms is a useful category to browse when comparing providers. TrueLayer Data API may suit teams that need a free sandbox for testing with mock data; its production plan is priced by volume and use case. Lean Payments, Trustly, Volt and Brite Payments are other paid options to consider. Finexer offers API and web access, with a standard plan that includes white labelling, data and payments, dashboard and connect, and unlimited Finexer accounts; its enterprise pricing is volume-based. Finshark is another paid option for API and web. Noda uses transaction-based pricing tailored to business needs, so it may be worth considering for organisations that prefer that pricing model.

Verdict

Pay by Bank from allpay is best suited to housing, public-sector and billing organisations collecting regular payments at scale. Its strongest case is bank authorisation without card entry or organisational handling of sensitive bank details, paired with instant settlement. Custom pricing makes cost comparisons harder, and teams that require Gateway Plus should choose another route until its integration is available.