Pay by Bank.One-off and recurring.

One-off Pay by Bank is a single immediate payment — the customer authorises one transaction. Recurring Pay by Bank — also known in the industry as a Variable Recurring Payment (VRP) — is a pre-authorised mandate that lets you initiate further payments within agreed limits without re-authenticating each time.

Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) are an open banking payment method that lets you collect payments directly from customer bank accounts, with variable amounts, clear limits and full control. The customer approves a mandate once in their banking app and sets payment caps, such as a maximum per payment or per month. You can then take recurring payments within those limits without the customer re-authenticating each time. At Acquired, we call this recurring Pay by Bank.

Both are open banking powered payments, but they're built for different jobs:

• Sweeping VRPs automate "me-to-me" transfers between accounts in the same person's name, such as moving funds into savings or topping up a current account to avoid an overdraft. The UK's largest banks are required to support them.

• Commercial VRPs (cVRPs) handle "me-to-business" payments, so customers can pay a business directly from their bank account. They're ideal for utilities, subscriptions and financial services, and run under a framework set by the UK Payments Initiative (UKPI).

Commercial VRPs are what power recurring Pay by Bank with Acquired.

Both let you collect recurring payments directly from bank accounts, but VRPs use open banking and run on a faster rail. Direct Debit runs on Bacs, so payments take around three working days to settle, and failures often surface after the fact. VRPs give you near real-time settlement over Faster Payments, balance checks before you collect, and instant confirmation of every payment. Customers can set payment caps and manage cancellations in their banking app. Many businesses use both rails together as part of a comprehensive recurring payment strategy.

On mobile the customer is redirected into their banking app to approve the payment. On desktop they scan a QR code to hand off to mobile. Either way, authentication happens inside the bank — there's no separate 3DS step.

Pay by Bank is a direct bank transfer, so the card-scheme chargeback process doesn't apply. Disputes are handled bank-to-bank under the Faster Payments scheme rules.

Funds typically hit the account in seconds, but can take up to two hours. Acquired also provides a batch settlement process to sweep funds into your external bank account on a daily basis.

Pay by Bank covers the full UK Open Banking participant list. Recurring Pay by Bank reaches a slightly narrower set via the UK Payments Initiative — coverage is expanding rapidly. See our docs site for a full list.

Yes — Pay by Bank bypasses card scheme interchange and acquirer fees entirely, which makes it the lowest-cost rail for high-value and recurring collections.