Trusted Payments: a safer way to pay for home improvements

How it works:

If you have already chosen a trader, ask them whether they use Trusted Payments. If you are still looking, you can find traders who offer it through Buy with Confidence, TrustMark, Book a Builder, Trusted Traders Scotland and other trade schemes.

Download the app if you are a consumer for iPhone or Android, or visit the Trusted Payments website if you are a trade.

1. Agree the job. You and your trader set out what is being done and split it into stages, with a price for each one.
2. Pay stage by stage. You pay for each stage as you reach it, instead of paying everything at the start.
3. Check the work, then sign it off. Money is only released once you are happy the stage is finished. There is a 24-hour pause before each payment goes out, so you have time to raise a concern.
4. Get help if something goes wrong. Raise it in the app. You and your trader have 45 days to sort it out between you. If you cannot, an independent Ombudsman decides. It costs you nothing extra and the decision is binding on both of you.

What every project includes:

• Payments released in stages, only when you have signed the work off
• A 24-hour pause before each payment leaves your account
• A written record of the work agreed, the stages, the payments and the progress
• An independent Ombudsman if you and your trader cannot agree, free to use, with a decision that binds both sides
• An insurance backed warranty on the work: three months while the job is running and twenty four months after it is finished, underwritten by a fully authorised, A-rated insurer
• Cover if your trader takes your money and disappears, stops trading, or walks off the job unfinished

How to use it?

If you have already chosen a trader, ask them whether they use Trusted Payments. If you are still looking, you can find traders who offer it through Buy with Confidence, TrustMark, Book a Builder, Trusted Traders Scotland and other trade schemes.

Download the app if you are a consumer for iPhone or Android, or visit the Trusted Payments website if you are a trade.

Common questions

Is Trusted Payments a bank?

No. Trusted Payments is not a bank and is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. It is a way of agreeing a project and releasing payment for each stage once you have signed that stage off. It holds the completion money as the consumers agent.

What does it cost?

There is a fee for each project. Your trader will normally include it in the price they quote you, so you can see the full cost before you agree to anything. Prices are available via the scheme operators but typically pricing is between £25 and £85 depending on the project size, less than 1% of project spend.

What if my trader does not use it?

Ask them. Traders can register with one of the scheme providers or with Trusted Payments website. If they will not use it is worth asking why, and is worth knowing before you pay a deposit.

Does CTSI check the traders using it?

No. See the note below.

In the News

Trusted Payments was named in the government’s announcement of 28 August 2026 on protecting families from cowboy builders, alongside CTSI’s Approved Code scheme.

Visit the Trusted Payments Website for current prices, who can use it, full warranty terms and exclusions.

CTSI works with Trusted Payments under a commercial partnership. CTSI does not approve, vet or endorse the individual traders who use the app, and cannot guarantee the outcome of any project, warranty claim or Ombudsman decision.