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Pay by Bank moves money direct from customer to you. Safely and securely approved by face ID or fingerprint in their banking app of choice. Payment settles in seconds via SEPA Instant.
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The screens

One message. 10 seconds. Paid.

Everything your customer sees, start to finish — and the row that appears in your dashboard the second it clears.

The short version

What Pay by Bank actually is

You may have seen it called account-to-account, or A2A. It is not a new payment network — it is the banking system's own rails, opened up so a payment can be started from outside the bank and approved inside it.

Account to account

Money leaves your customer's bank account and arrives in yours. No card number is created, no card network sits in the middle taking a cut and a settlement delay with it.

Opened up by open banking

Banking regulation obliges banks to let a regulated provider start a payment on a customer's instruction. That is what turns a bank transfer into something you can put behind a button.

Approved at the bank

The customer is handed to their own banking app and confirms with a fingerprint or a face scan. Their credentials are entered at their bank and go nowhere near you or us.

Step by step

How a payment actually moves

Five steps, four of them the customer's. None of them involve typing a card number.

Tap the link

The invoice arrives in WhatsApp with a Pay button. One tap opens the payment page.

Choose Pay by Bank

Sitting beside card and wallet. They pick their bank from the list.

Land in their banking app

A secure hand-off to the bank they already sign in to every week.

Approve with a fingerprint

The amount, the payee and the reference are pre-filled. They confirm; nothing to type.

It lands in your account

Straight to your bank on instant rails. The invoice marks itself paid and you get a WhatsApp confirmation.

Why bother

Better on both sides of the counter

A payment method only survives if the person paying likes it too. This one is genuinely easier for both.

For your business

  • The money moves in secondsInstant payment rails, not a settlement window. Cash flow stops being something you forecast around.
  • Cheaper to takeNo card scheme fee, no acquirer margin. Removing the card network removes most of what a payment costs.
  • No chargebacksThe customer authorised it at their own bank with strong authentication. There is no card scheme behind it that can force a reversal months later.
  • Fewer payments that simply failNo expired cards, no mistyped digits, no card being declined for a reason nobody can explain to the customer.
  • Less to protectYou never hold a card number, so there is nothing sitting in a database waiting to be stolen.

For your customer

  • Nothing to typeNo sixteen digits, no expiry, no CVV, no hunting for a wallet. The amount and reference are already filled in.
  • Their own bank, their own biometricsThe same fingerprint or face scan they use to check a balance. Familiar, and it feels safe because it is.
  • Details stay at the bankThey are not handing card details to a business they met last week. Nothing leaves the bank.
  • No new app, no new accountIt works with the bank account they already have. Nothing to download, nothing to sign up for.
  • They know instantly it workedConfirmation on screen and a receipt in the thread. No wondering whether the payment went through.
Side by side

Pay by Bank next to cards

Cards are not going anywhere, and you should keep taking them. This is what changes when a customer picks the other option.

  Pay by Bank Cards & wallets
How the customer confirms Biometrics in their own banking app Card details, or a saved wallet, plus a bank verification step
Where the money goes Their bank account to yours, directly Through the card networks and the processor, then to you
When it reaches you Seconds on instant rails Typically a couple of working days
Chargebacks None — no card scheme to reverse it Possible; disputes handled by the card network
What it costs you A single platform fee, no card processing on top Platform fee plus the card processing fee
What the customer needs A bank account and their banking app A card, or a wallet set up on the device
Availability on WaPay Live today Live today

Exact rates, floors and caps for both are on the pricing page.

Security

Why a bank transfer you start on WhatsApp is safe

It is a fair question. The answer is that the sensitive part never leaves the bank.

Strong Customer Authentication

Payment regulation requires at least two independent factors before a payment is approved — something the customer has, and something they are. Their banking app does this by default. It is the same check that protects every other payment they make.

Credentials are never shared

Nobody asks the customer for a banking password or a card number. They sign in at their bank, in their bank's app, and come back with a yes or a no. There is no credential to hand over and nothing for a business to store.

Regulated all the way through

Starting a payment on someone's behalf is a licensed activity. The payment is initiated through an authorised provider, under the same supervision as the rest of the payments industry — not a screen-scraping workaround.

Data handled under GDPR

Only what is needed to move the payment is processed, and only for as long as it is needed. What we hold and why is set out in the privacy policy.

Cards & wallets

And cards keep working exactly as they do now

Some customers will always reach for the card they know, and a payment you take is worth more than a payment method you prefer. Every WaPay payment page offers both.

Card payments are processed by Stripe and paid out to your own bank account. WaPay never holds your money.

Questions

The things people actually ask

What is Pay by Bank, in one sentence?
Money moves straight from your customer's bank account into yours, over the banking system's own payment rails, with the customer approving it inside their own banking app. No card number, no card network in the middle.
How fast does the money actually arrive?
Where instant payment rails are available, seconds — usually before the customer has closed WhatsApp. Card payments settle to your bank on the processor's normal payout schedule, typically a couple of working days. That difference is the single biggest reason businesses switch.
Can a Pay by Bank payment be charged back?
Not in the card-network sense. A chargeback is a reversal a card scheme can force on you. A Pay by Bank payment is one the customer authorised themselves, at their own bank, with strong authentication — there is no scheme dispute process sitting behind it. Genuine disagreements get resolved with the customer directly, and attaching photos of the work to the invoice is still the best protection you have.
Does my customer have to download anything?
No. They tap the link in the WhatsApp message, pick their bank, and approve in the banking app already on their phone. No account to create, no wallet to set up, no card details to type. That is the whole point — the friction people blame on bank transfers came from typing account numbers by hand, and this removes it.
Is it safe to start a bank payment from a WhatsApp message?
The sensitive part never happens in WhatsApp. The link opens a payment page, and the payment page hands the customer to their own bank, where they authenticate under Strong Customer Authentication — the two-factor standard required of every regulated payment. Their banking credentials are entered at the bank and reach neither WaPay nor the business. See Security above.
Do I have to choose between Pay by Bank and cards?
No, and you shouldn't. Offer both on the same page and let the customer decide. Plenty will still reach for the card or the wallet they know — habit is real, and a payment taken beats a payment method preferred.
What does it cost?
A single platform fee on Pay by Bank, with no card processing fee on top, and a floor and a cap so a large payment never costs a large fee. Cards carry the platform fee plus the processor's own charge. The full breakdown, including the volume tiers, is on the pricing page.
Will it work with every bank?
It works wherever open banking coverage and the instant payment rails are in place — which is most of them, and growing. Where a customer's bank isn't supported, the payment page simply shows cards and wallets instead. They never see an error, and you still get paid.

Send your first invoice today

Register in two minutes, take cards straight away, and Pay by Bank appears on the same page the moment it launches.

Register — it's free Watch a demo