Pay by Bank: simple, secure, frictionless payments to 20% of checkout
Everup CEO and Co-Founder Giuseppe Caltabiano shares why partnering with TrueLayer to add Pay by Bank to their checkout was key to their cashback model.
Everup is a UK-based fintech built on a simple idea: helping people get more value from the money they spend every day. Users buy digital gift cards for brands they already use, get instant cashback, and earn rewards they can reinvest straight back into the app. It’s ecommerce with the payment experience at the centre of the product.
“In a cashback-driven model, unit economics are extremely important. Pay by Bank gives us more predictability and efficiency compared to card payments. That allows us to reinvest more value back into the user experience, which is core to our proposition.
Giuseppe Caltabiano, Co-founder and CEO
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What is Pay by Bank?
Pay by Bank is a payment method that lets customers pay for things directly from their bank account via their bank app, without the need for card networks. Find out more with our Pay by Bank guide
The challenge
Everup's model is built on real-time delivery. Users pay and receive a digital gift card they can use straight away, often while standing in a checkout queue. Any delay, failed transaction or friction at that moment breaks the experience.
This cashback model added a second layer of pressure. Card processing costs vary by card type and geography, eating into the funds that flow back to users as rewards. In a product where the core promise depends on passing value back to users, cost predictability matters.
Not every customer wants to set up Apple Pay or Google Pay either. For some, that extra step is enough of a barrier to abandon the checkout entirely.
Everup needed a payment method that addressed all of this:
Fast enough for instant fulfilment: Vouchers are redeemed at the till, so payment confirmation needs to arrive in real time.
Cost-predictable: Variable card fees reduce the rewards available to users, directly weakening the product's core promise.
Accessible without setup: Any step that requires prior configuration creates unnecessary drop-off.
The solution
Everup partnered with TrueLayer to bring Pay by Bank into its checkout, positioning it prominently from the start, often as the first option users see.
“Pay by Bank removes friction completely. There's no setup, no need to store card details, and users can simply authenticate directly with their bank, which they already trust. In many cases, it becomes the most natural and straightforward way to complete a payment.
Giuseppe Caltabiano, Co-founder and CEO
Because the payment runs on faster rails, the digital gift card arrives in real time. No waiting, no refresh, no uncertainty.
TrueLayer stood out for the strength of its infrastructure, its focus on performance and uptime, and a support model built to grow with Everup. Uptime was non-negotiable: with payments sitting at the core of the user experience, any degradation would be felt immediately by users.
The results
Consistent share of checkout: Pay by Bank now accounts for around 20% of Everup's checkout. That share has remained consistent as the business has scaled, pointing to sustained preference rather than novelty.
A more predictable cost structure: Unlike card processing, where fees shift by card type and geography, Pay by Bank delivers consistent pricing. On higher-value transactions in particular, that predictability makes a material difference to the cashback model's economics.
More value reinvested in rewards: The efficiency flows directly back to users, keeping Everup's cashback proposition competitive.
“What's been most interesting is how quickly users adopt it once they try it. There's often an assumption that behaviour change in payments takes time, but once users experience how simple it is, many of them continue using it. That repeat usage has been a really strong signal for us.
Giuseppe Caltabiano, Co-founder and CEO
The future
Everup views Pay by Bank as a long-term component of its payments stack. As the business scales, real-time bank payments will stay central to the experience. For Giuseppe, the principle is straightforward: payments that run efficiently leave more to put back into the product and, ultimately, into users' pockets.
"TrueLayer has helped us improve the efficiency of our payments, allowing us to deliver more value back to our users."