accepting payment as standing order

[hippyer]

Hello I'm new to the forum. I collect payment from my customers on a monthly basis. I am currently invoicing them and displaying four options for payment method.
1. Post a cheque
2. Online/telephone banking
3. Set up a standing order
4. Local bank cash deposit

My preferred method of payment would be to set them up with a standing order and my bank manager has advised me to get the customer to fill out a form with their bank details on and then for me to send this form off to their bank.

Does anyone on here have any experience of collecting payments via this method and would be able to help me out as to where I may find a template for such a form?

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Does anyone on here have any experience of collecting payments via this method and would be able to help me out as to where I may find a template for such a form?

Yes indeed - as accountants we collect about 95% of our fee income by standing order, and it works very well for both myself and clients.

If you google standing order you'll easily find some templates you can use/copy - thats what I did to set up a standard one.

 

[hippyer]

Thankyou. I googled standing order document and got nowhere before I posted here.

Changed my search to standing order form and what do you know....

Thanks again.

 

[Rhyl Lightworks]

Standing orders are fine if the payer is paying you the same amount per month, but the payer is the only person that can change the amount, and if the amount varies monthly they are a non-starter. Also they will not be paid if there are insufficient funds in the payers account.
In this case direct debits, where the payee can take different amounts every month, are the best option, but expensive to set up, and only viable if you are collecting 1000s of payments per month.
Otherwise there is little to choose beween the other options - they all depend on the payer instigating the payment, but check your bank charges first. I am on internet banking charge rate with HSBC and paying cash into my account means I pay (i.e. lose) 2% of any cash paid into my account, but cheques, BACS, online/telephone banking are all free. Thus I do not want cash paid into my account.

Barrie

 

[GRDCredit]

I am on internet banking charge rate with HSBC and paying cash into my account means I pay (i.e. lose) 2% of any cash paid into my account, but cheques, BACS, online/telephone banking are all free. Thus I do not want cash paid into my account.

Barrie

Are cheques really free to pay in? Banks really hate them as well as cash and normally charge quite high rates.

 

[GRDCredit]

To the OP - without trying to put unncessary obstacles in the way are there Consumer Credit Licence implications for you? What are your customers paying for? Are you offering them 'credit'?


Geoff

 

[Rhyl Lightworks]

Are cheques really free to pay in? Banks really hate them as well as cash and normally charge quite high rates.

The first 50 per month are free, after that you pay something, but I don't know what. They are so few these days I only pay in about 5 per month, mainly ones sent through the post, and the occasional one paid to me when I am out of the shop. We have banned them in the shop. Banks do charge for them on other charge rates though.

Barrie

 

[Ashley_Price]

You don't have to set up the standing order, get the client to do it.

We provide our telephone answering packages and they are payable in advance by standing order. We provide our client with our bank details and ask them to set up the payments.

All of our phone answering clients pay this way and the main advantage for us is they don't "forget" to post the cheque and we know we're getting a set amount of money coming in on the 1st (or soon after) of the month.