Recurring pay by bank
Set & collect recurring payments instantly and reliably
Waiting days for payments to clear costs your customers
Settle payments instantly.
Funds arrive in seconds with Faster Payments (FPS). No more reconciliation delays.
Collect flexibly, fail less.
Confirmation of Funds checks with every payment, plus retry logic when things go wrong.
One consent. Total control.
Your customers authenticate once, set clear spending limits, and manage mandates anytime from their banking app.
Jay Swanston
Chief Platform Officer, Moneybox
Turn every mandate into a lasting payment relationship
Frictionless consent setup
Bank-grade authentication Your customer authenticates once through their banking app using Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). No credentials are shared with Plaid or your application.
Clear, consumer-set limits. Maximum payment amounts, spending limits, and expiry dates are visible and agreed upfront. No surprises.
Returning users stay connected Once a mandate is active, future payments collect automatically. No re-authentication, no drop-off, no expired card numbers.
Frictionless consent setup
Bank-grade authentication Your customer authenticates once through their banking app using Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). No credentials are shared with Plaid or your application.
Clear, consumer-set limits. Maximum payment amounts, spending limits, and expiry dates are visible and agreed upfront. No surprises.
Returning users stay connected Once a mandate is active, future payments collect automatically. No re-authentication, no drop-off, no expired card numbers.
Build the billing stack that fits
Account verification and locking
Your customer links their bank account through Plaid Link, verifying their identity and account details upfront. The payment mandate is then tied to that specific account, with payments only made from that account.
Confirmation of funds
Funds availability is checked as part of each payment, so you know so get instant feedback and you can retry at a better time instead of hitting a failure.
Virtual accounts
Settle Recurring Pay by Bank payments into dedicated virtual accounts for instant funds confirmation, simple refunds and clean reconciliation.
Your questions, answered
Reach out if we didn't answer yours.
What are Variable Recurring Payments (VRP)?
An Open Banking payment method where customers authenticate once and authorise future payments within agreed limits (max per payment, max per period, expiry). Settles instantly via Faster Payments, with more customer control than Direct Debit or card-on-file.
What is the difference between sweeping VRP and commercial VRP (cVRP)?
Sweeping VRP covers me-to-me payments between a customer's own accounts (mandated for CMA9 banks since 2022). cVRP extends this to third-party business payments, governed by UKPI and launching in waves.
How does VRP compare to Direct Debit?
VRP settles instantly vs. 3 to 5 days for Direct Debit, uses SCA at setup, and targets 99.5% success via pre-payment Confirmation of Funds (Direct Debit averages 8% failures). Customers can view, amend, or cancel mandates in their banking app any time.
What happens if the customer has insufficient funds?
Plaid runs a Confirmation of Funds check before initiating; if the are not enough funds, you can retry later. No unpaid item, no customer charges (unlike Direct Debit).
Can customers cancel a VRP mandate?
Yes, any time from their banking app. Plaid sends a real-time webhook on revocation so you can update records immediately.
Do I need a new integration to add VRP if I already use Plaid?
No. Recurring Pay by Bank uses the same Payments API and Link flow as single immediate payments; you just create a consent instead of a one-off payment. New customers get one-off, recurring, and account data through a single integration.
What use cases does cVRP Wave 1 cover?
Regulated financial products, FCA-authorised e-money (neobanks, wallets, BNPL, EWA), utilities, government and council tax, charities, and rail. Wave 2 (later in 2026) extends to ecommerce, subscriptions, marketplaces, and usage-based billing.
Is there a Direct Debit Guarantee equivalent for VRP?
cVRP includes a dispute resolution framework with rules for handling disputed payments and refunds where applicable. The model is different by design: VRP protects consumers upfront via the limits they set, rather than relying on after-the-fact disputes.
