Do you use direct debit as a payment option?

[RPower]

In association with GoCardless, we're asking, do you use direct debit as a payment option for your business? And if not, how do you take payments?

We'll be picking the best answers out for a feature we're writing on the subject!

 

[Alan]

Yes, we have been using GoCardless for several years.

If you want to PM me I can explain what and how.

 

[RPower]

@Alan Great to hear! Do you want to share your experience on the thread? Otherwise I'll PM you.

 

[LukeF]

Takes 14-21 days for GoCardless to authorise a direct debit and set the first payment over. I just can't wait that long when customers are expecting results (work to be done) within a 30 day time frame.

I just use PayPal's subscription feature as they can cancel any time which isn't a problem for me and it's instant. It's also easy to set up.

So I would use direct debit, but not GoCardless.

 

[Alan]

Interesting, once set up the collection is more like 7 days, and i believe that is to comply with ethe Direct Debit Guarantee.

Having used GoCardless since Jan 2013 ( 3 years ) we always start work as soon as the bank details are entered into GC. We never have has a single 'bail out' on an initial payment. (and failure rates on repeat payments are rare)

With Paypal of course, they can reclaim within 30 days, has that ever happened to you. And the Paypal fees are so relatively high. When we started out we started with Paypal subscriptions, but converted to GC and must say it has worked fine.

 

[LukeF]

We were a start up at the time so we just couldn't wait so long for the money to arrive in our account and pay the associated freelancers to do the work. Clients were also miffed that they wouldn't see results for so many weeks after starting the direct debit. The fees were what attracted me in the first place. Perhaps it's more suited to an established business, but such a long time to wait is still very unappealing no matter what your cashflow is like.

 

[Alan]

Waiting a long time for payment is obviously relative. I'd much rather get paid automatically in 7 days than send a paper invoice to an accounts department and then wait 30 days to find out the invoice has been 'lost'.

But obviously if you really are hand to mouth with cashflow then your solution works for you.

 

[LukeF]

PayPal's fees are high so i'm still looking for an alternative. I've also yet to have that dreaded case raised against me which PayPal are notorious for siding with the buyer. I'd be lying if I said I was perfectly happy with PayPal.

 

[DavidWH]

We have a gocardless account, however it's not been used...

Why not?

Where ever possible we take payment in advance, or at least a deposit. Larger companies will do so by BACS, occasionally by cheque, whilst smaller customers will do so by credit/debit card. Most of our purchases are 'occasional'

Credit account holders are frequent customers, and have a proven trading history with us, so we're comfortable with invoicing and awaiting for a BACS payment.

Some of our corporate clients, well, they just wont entertain a direct debit payment.

With gocardless, it requires the customer to register for an account too, which may put some off, entering your bank details into a website you've never heard of???

 

[Alan]

I agree that bigger customers won't entertain it. We have the local council as a customer - no way would their systems cope with a DD.

As our clients become more 'corporate' I see the proportion of income coming in via GC dropping.

Also some 'corporates' people buy with their 'company card' and don't have access the company bank account.

To that end, GC suits customers that are small owner/operator business where your service is a regular 'subscription'.

By the way, about 2 months ago, GC change so that people don't need to create an account with CG to pay. They simply 'sign' the DD mandate with their email & bank details.

 

[DavidWH]

Thanks @Alan I may revisit the GC option for of the smaller trade accounts, if there's no need to sign up.

 

[Alan]

Don't forget you can get £50 fee rebate is you sign up as a seller from a referral code

Google "gocardless discount coupon" or "gocardless promotion code"

 

[antropy]

We take payments via BACS, some standing payments and PayPal (both recurring and one-off).

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

We take payments via BACS, cheque, PayPal and our our secure Payment Gateway for credit and debit cards, for the services we offer.

 

[ldjames]

It's convenient for some and cheap but overall for us, waiting about 4 days just to know if a payment will go through, is not a sensible payment choice.

 

[George Ricards]

Never heard of go cardless. Might need to check them out. Been looking for some alternative solutions.

 

[Huque Chaudhry Associates]

Worldpay subscription is also a winner.

 

[morby]

I'm looking to start a subscription based service, not sure weather to go through worldplay, paypal or gocardless, should i offer more then one option?

 

[arnydnxluk]

We would have accepted direct debit via GoCardless at Ngage Hosting but their WHMCS plugin has been discontinued and we don't have time to develop our own integration for the moment.

 

[SamWhittle]

We use Paypal.. works brilliantly.

 

[Edith@TerraNetwork]

We've started using GoCardLess a few months ago for a small group of clients as it's been a frequently requested feature by our clients. Especially larger companies prefer DD to other payment types such as continuous use authority on debit / credit cards. We haven't been able to roll it out all clients yet as there's no current integration with WHMCS but I'm looking to code this inhouse and then use it standard payment type across all clients. The payment delay is an issue with new clients, but for existing clients on rolling monthly contracts it's perfect. Feel free to PM me if you're looking for more details!

 

[FuturePro]

All helpful comments here. Based on this we will review these companies & GC in particular. Especially now our customers do not have to create an account with CG to pay.
Thank you.

 

[SimplyMyLove]

In association with GoCardless, we're asking, do you use direct debit as a payment option for your business? And if not, how do you take payments?

We'll be picking the best answers out for a feature we're writing on the subject!

We use WorldPay for several years, and it also offers recurring payment option.

 

[LukeF]

We use WorldPay for several years, and it also offers recurring payment option.

How long does a recurring payment take to set up in WorldPay?

 

[SimplyMyLove]

How long does a recurring payment take to set up in WorldPay?

No idea though. I was told by the account manager there is such a service available, but never got chance to use it for the time being. I believe it won't take more than a couple of days.

 

[ldjames]

GoCardless is nice but waiting ~4 days to hear if a payment is even successful would be a massive headache.

 

[SimplyMyLove]

GoCardless is nice but waiting ~4 days to hear if a payment is even successful would be a massive headache.

4 Days?! Did they explain why it should take so long?

 

[Alan]

4 Days?! Did they explain why it should take so long?

Because it is Direct Debit, not Credit Card or Bank Transfer.

The Direct Debit timing and process is explained clearly here.

https://gocardless.com/direct-debit/timings/

 

[Balanced HQ]

We use more than one option, Go Cardless, Paypal, BACS and normal bank account. Go Cardless is excellent and very fairly priced. A DD set up takes a little time 4 working days or so, then you get a notice to say its been collected then payment into your account within 2 days from collection.