Open Banking with August: how rent payments and tracking work | August

What is Open Banking with August

Managing rental properties involves countless financial transactions: rent collection, deposit transfers, expense tracking and more. For decades, landlords relied on standing orders, cheques or manual bank transfers, each with its own friction and delays. Open Banking changes this. Through August, tenants can pay rent directly from their bank account, and landlords can have those payments tracked and reconciled automatically, with no fees, no waiting and full security. But Open Banking is more than a payment method: it underpins a broader shift in how property management works.

This article explains what Open Banking is, the two ways August uses it, why it is secure, and how it fits into modern landlording.

What is Open Banking?

Open Banking is a regulated system that lets you securely share your banking data, or authorise payments, with approved third-party providers. It was introduced across the UK in January 2018 under the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), and it has reshaped how financial services work.

The principle is simple. Your bank holds detailed information about your finances, and traditionally that data stayed locked inside the bank. Open Banking lets you grant explicit, revocable permission for a regulated provider to access specific data, or to initiate a payment, through secure Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the same kind of encrypted connections banks use internally. You stay in control throughout: you decide who has access, to what, and for how long, and you can withdraw it at any time.

For landlords and tenants this means no chasing payments by hand, no waiting for transfers to clear, no fees eroding margins, and complete transparency about who has paid what and when. For guidance on which account to use, see our review of the best bank accounts for UK landlords.

The two ways August uses Open Banking

August provides Open Banking through Plaid Financial Ltd, an authorised payment institution regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Firm Reference Number 804718), acting as Plaid's agent. Through this, August offers two distinct Open Banking services, and it helps to understand the difference.

The first is payment initiation, known as a PISP payment. This lets a tenant pay rent directly from their bank account through the August app. The tenant authorises the payment in their own banking app, and the money moves straight from their account to the landlord's, with no card networks in between.

The second is account information services. This lets a landlord connect their own bank account so that August can recognise rent as it arrives and reconcile it automatically against the right tenancy. This is read-only: August can see the relevant transactions but cannot move money. It is particularly useful when rent is paid outside August, for example through an existing standing order, because you still get automatic tracking and reminders without changing how the tenant pays.

Most landlords use both: tenants pay through August, and the landlord's connected account keeps the records current automatically.

How payment initiation works, securely

When rent is due, the tenant opens the August app, selects the payment and confirms it. August securely redirects them to their own bank, where they authenticate using their normal credentials, typically Face ID, a fingerprint or a PIN. Once authenticated, the payment moves directly from the tenant's account to the landlord's. August never sees or stores banking credentials, and the tenant approves every payment explicitly.

For landlords this means real-time visibility: you can see when rent has been paid, track what is outstanding, and have payments reconciled automatically against expected income. For tenants it means no standing orders to set up and no uncertainty about whether the payment arrived. Both parties get confirmation, creating a clear audit trail.

This differs fundamentally from older methods. Card payments route through card networks that charge 1.5% to 3% in fees; standing orders need manual setup and give no confirmation of receipt; cheques are slow and increasingly rare. Open Banking removes all of that.

The security behind Open Banking

Concerns about sharing financial data are natural, so it is worth being clear about how the framework protects you. Data moving through Open Banking uses the same bank-level 256-bit encryption banks use for their own systems, over Financial-grade API (FAPI) standards built specifically for high-security financial transactions. Every provider that can access your data must be authorised and regulated by the FCA, with ongoing compliance checks; August operates through Plaid, which holds that authorisation.

You never share your banking password with August or any provider: authentication always happens inside your bank's own environment. Consent is time-limited and specific, you choose whether a connection is one-off or ongoing, and you can revoke it at any time through your banking app. Where Open Banking is used for account information rather than payments, access is read-only. And every transaction requires Strong Customer Authentication, at least two independent factors, which makes fraudulent payments very difficult. If you ever want to verify a provider, Open Banking Limited maintains a public register of regulated providers.

Which banks and building societies work with August?

Coverage is comprehensive: all major UK banks and building societies support Open Banking, so the large majority of account holders can use the service. That includes the high-street banks (Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, RBS, Santander, TSB), the major building societies (Nationwide, Yorkshire, Coventry and others), the digital banks that were early adopters (Monzo, Starling, Revolut), and challengers such as Metro Bank, First Direct and Virgin Money. The list keeps growing, and the register linked above shows current participants. If your bank is not yet connected, the regulatory framework means it must provide Open Banking functionality in time, and many people find another of their accounts already works.

How a rent payment happens, step by step

When rent is due, both landlord and tenant are notified in the app. The tenant opens August, selects the payment and taps to pay; August shows the amount and recipient and asks for confirmation. The tenant chooses their bank and is redirected to its app to authenticate, entirely within the bank's environment. They review the amount, recipient and reference, and confirm. The bank then processes the transfer directly from the tenant's account to the landlord's, so the money typically arrives within seconds or minutes. Both parties receive instant confirmation, the landlord sees the payment reconciled against the tenancy, and August keeps a complete record, date, time, amount and reference, as an automatic audit trail. The whole process usually takes under a minute, against several days for a traditional transfer.

Beyond payments

Payment initiation is the most visible use, but Open Banking enables much more. With a connected account, August identifies rent as it arrives and updates your records automatically, removing manual data entry. It can categorise transactions such as mortgage payments, insurance and maintenance to simplify bookkeeping and expense tracking, and give you real-time visibility of your portfolio's cash flow. For tenant referencing, Open Banking enables faster, more accurate affordability checks drawn from real banking behaviour rather than three months of posted statements, which also helps reliable tenants with thin credit files. Because the data comes straight from the bank, it is very hard to forge, which addresses the growing problem of fraudulent applications using doctored statements. Deposits can be transferred with instant confirmation, and for landlords with multiple properties the connections create a single, consolidated view of portfolio finances.

The cost advantage

Open Banking's most direct benefit is the absence of transaction fees. Card payments typically carry merchant fees of 1.5% to 3%: on £1,000 of monthly rent that is £15 to £30 a month, or up to £360 a year per tenancy. Standing orders are free but need manual setup and give no confirmation, and many platforms add their own transaction or subscription fees.  August's Open Banking payments are instant, free and confirmed in real time. Consider a landlord with five properties each let at £1,200 a month, £72,000 a year: card payments at a conservative 2% would cost £1,440 a year, or £7,200 over five years, money that stays in the landlord's pocket with Open Banking.

Open Banking and financial inclusion

Open Banking also helps tenants who struggle with traditional referencing. Around five million people in the UK have "thin" credit files, including first-time renters, recent arrivals, and people who have always used debit rather than credit. Traditional referencing leans heavily on credit scores and can exclude otherwise reliable tenants, whereas Open Banking allows a fairer assessment based on actual income and bill payments. That widens the pool of good applicants a landlord can consider confidently and can shorten void periods. Some services now let tenants add rent payments to their credit records too, correcting a long-standing inequity in which mortgage payments built credit but equally reliable rent did not.

How it fits the rest of August

Open Banking does not sit in isolation. It is one of the tools that define the modern digital landlord; for the wider picture, see our guide to what a digital landlord is. Within August, payments and expenses paid this way are recorded automatically against the right property, so compliance records and your document library stay current, contractor payments link to the relevant maintenance ticket, and come tax time your income and allowable expenses are largely categorised already, ready for Making Tax Digital. The result is unified financial reporting across the portfolio without manual aggregation.

Privacy and data control

Sharing data does not mean losing control of it. Permissions are granular: a payment needs no access to your history, and account-information access can be limited by date or type. Consent is revocable at any time, providers may only request data they genuinely need and may only use it for the purpose you authorised, and they cannot hold it indefinitely. August uses Open Banking solely for property management, rent, expenses and related functions, and FCA regulation and UK data protection law prohibit selling your banking data. Providers must also explain clearly what they access and why before you consent.

The future of Open Banking in property management

The technology is still developing. Variable Recurring Payments will allow pre-authorised, automatically adjusting rent payments, like an intelligent standing order with full transparency. Open Banking is also expanding internationally, which could simplify rent from overseas tenants or students, and "Open Finance" will extend the model to savings, pensions, investments and mortgages, giving property investors a fuller financial picture in one place. Richer data also enables AI-driven insights, such as early warning of potential arrears from payment patterns.

Common questions about Open Banking with August

Can my bank see what I use August for? 

Your bank can see you have authorised access to August through Plaid, and sees rent payments as it would any transfer, but not the detail of how you use the service.

Does August store my banking passwords? 

No. Authentication always happens directly in your bank's systems; August never sees or stores your credentials.

Can a landlord see my full bank account? 

No. Landlords receive confirmation of rent payments only. Broader data is shared solely if you use Open Banking for referencing, and only with your explicit consent.

What if a payment fails? 

Technical issues are rare; if one occurs you are notified immediately and can retry or use another method, and support can help.

Is my data sold to third parties? 

No. FCA rules prohibit it; August uses your data only to provide its service.

How long does August keep my data? 

Transaction records are retained for accounting and legal purposes, typically six years for tax, but live banking access expires and must be re-authorised periodically.

Why it works

Open Banking's real value is not only making each rent payment faster and cheaper, though it does both. It is removing the accumulated friction of dozens of manual processes that together eat time and create errors. Every payment that self-processes, every expense that auto-categorises and every balance that updates in real time saves time and improves accuracy, and across a year and several properties that adds up. August uses Open Banking not as a bolt-on but as foundational infrastructure for property management automation, with security and control kept firmly in your hands.

Ready to see it in action? Start for free.

Disclaimer: This article is a guide and not intended to be relied upon as legal or professional advice, or as a substitute for it. August does not accept any liability for any errors, omissions or misstatements contained in this article.