Pay By Bank
Information on the Pay By Bank payment method.
- Introduction
- User Experience
- Details
- How to activate Pay By Bank
- Merchant Categories
- Payment method messaging
- Get Support
Introduction
What is “Pay by Bank”?
Pay by Bank allows a customer to pay online instantly and directly from their bank account. Pay by bank follows Open Banking standards and applies a high level of security.
How does “Pay by Bank” work?
The customer will be securely redirected to their Pay By Bank app where they will be able to authorise the payment with no need to share any sensitive details. The customer will be protected by end-to-end encryption.
Why is “Pay by Bank” recommended?
Pay by Bank is secure and instant and relies on the customer’s bank account. They will not need to share or save their card details. Payment is processed via SEPA transfer and operates for most European banks.
Some of the main benefits of offering Pay By Bank as a payment method are:
- Lower costs: Typically 2-20x lower cost than traditional payment methods and independent of payment values, as they eliminate scheme and interchange fees, and chargebacks
- Convenience: Customers typically approve payments through seamless app-to-app redirection to their mobile banking app, eliminating tedious, error-prone manual detail entry
- Trust: Customers do not need to share any payment details with the merchant, thus increasing trust and overall conversion rates
- Easy to use: There is no need for customers to carry credit or debit cards. Buyers can quickly pay by connecting to their personal bank account
- Availability: Pay By Bank is available 24 / 7 in a wide range of European countries
User Experience
Screenshots
At the checkout, the customer selects “Pay By Bank” as their preferred payment method and - optionally - fills the form with his/her email and name details:
After clicking the “Select bank” button, a list of eligible banks will appear. The customer can select his/her bank and can also easily search for it by entering the bank’s name in the search box:
The customer is then redirected to his/her Bank account in order to sign in and confirm the payment:
Videos
Please also see our videos below, outlining the desktop and mobile use of Pay By Bank:
Desktop:
Mobile:
Mobile (Portugal):
Details
- How to activate: Please refer to the How to activate section below
- Payment method type: Asynchronous - payments are not confirmed immediately, the confirmation of payment occurs when the funds arrive, which can be up to 3 business days. You need to set up webhooks in order to get notified for asynchronous payments
- Refunds: Supports partial and full refunds
- Recurring payments: Not yet supported
- Pre-authorizations: Not yet supported
- Restricted MCC: Some Merchant Categories are not eligible to have Pay By Bank activated
- Μerchant countries: Currently available for merchants registered in Finland (support for more Euro countries coming soon)
- Customer countries: Available to customers in all Euro currency countries and banks supporting this method. The bank list on smart checkout is displayed according to the customer country
- Pricing: Please refer to our pricing page under the main navigation for more information
- Settlement: Customer payments are deposited next day into your business account for confirmed payments / successful transactions (i.e. have statusId = F)
- Cross-currency payments: Not yet supported
- Additional notes: The Email address and Customer Name fields within Smart Checkout are optional
How to activate Pay By Bank
| Environment | Activation details |
|---|---|
| Production | This payment method is available upon positive review of your request. For more information, please contact your Viva sales representative. Alternatively, you can contact us directly via our live chat facility(which can be found in your *Production* Viva self-care account). |
| Demo | This payment method is unavailable on demo environment. |
Merchant Categories
There are some merchant categories that are not eligible to have Pay By Bank activated. If your business is in one of these categories, you will not be able to accept payments through Pay By Bank:
| Merchant Category (MCC) | Description |
|---|---|
| 4812 | Telecommunication Equipment Including Telephone Sales |
| 4814 | Telecommunication Services including but not limited to prepaid phone services and recurring phone services |
| 4816 | Computer Network/Information Services |
| 4899 | Wire Transfer Money Orders (V, D, G, X) Money Transfer (M) |
| 5122 | Drugs, Drug Proprietors and Druggists Sundries |
| 5912 | Drug Stores and Pharmacies |
| 5966 | Direct Marketing–Outbound Telemarketing Merchants |
| 5967 | Direct Marketing–Inbound Teleservices Merchants |
| 5993 | Cigar Stores and Stands |
| 6051 | Quasi Cash–Merchant |
| 7841 | VD/Video Tape Rental Stores |
Payment method messaging
It is important that the customer is aware of the payment methods you offer via Smart Checkout, as this will increase conversion and average order values. Please see our payment method messaging guide for more details on why and where we would recommend adding this information to your site.
If desired, you can download and use this icon on your site or online store, in order to show customers you offer Pay By Bank as a payment method:
Get Support
If you would like to integrate with Viva, or if you have any queries about our products and solutions, please see our Contact & Support page to see how we can help!