Accepting Online payments - One Off's & Recurring

Hey, thought I would share something I have recently been introduced to and will be implementing into my business in the future.

www.gocardless.com is the link you will need.

If you run an ecommerce site then I wouldn't have thought this is the best option (though I havent looked at things from that angle before so it might still be of use to you, who knows). This is more for providing services to people you will never meet in my opinion.

What makes me lik this option? Low fees is a big one. Fees are 15 of transaction amount, capped at £2 per transaction. There are no other fees, no membership fee, nothing else. Another benefit is the ability to setup Direct debits for customers. You can have a client enter their details once, and they will be billed continually until either they stop payment by talknig to gocardless / their bank, or by asking you to stop (ni which case you login and remove them manually which appears to be simple enough). Who here has signed up for something on a recurring basis and kept on paying for several months after you last used the service? I know I have, plenty of times. And also if you're on the fence about staying with a service, sometimes the hassle of sending the money again can be a deciding factor and having it come out automatically might make you stay a few months longer.

You create a link, by giving details on things such as the amount to collect, whether it should recur and how frequently, start date, ETC. You cna then share this link with one client, or many clients. It shows you all your customers and categorises them by whichever payment they have paid for.

I think there are a ton of benefits and I haven't seen fees so low for any similar service before. Payment links can be branded with your Logo and a description of the payment.

You can also enter details you have collected offline, using the following form: https://gocardless.com/blank_mandate

I havent yet used the service, and am not affiliated in any way, Just thought it would be a worthwhile thing to share as I think many could find a use for this.

Matthew

There's lots of new payment services hitting the market place right now. The costs are attractive for transactions below £25.00 which is about the breakpoint for when debit card transaction (the nearest equivalent to a Direct Debit) would work out cheaper. 

You mustn't forget people also prefer to pay by credit card on-line because of the protection that the card company offer.

But it is always worth checking out the downsides e.g. time it takes to get paid plus the security. GoCardLess is payment in 7-10days, and payments aren't guaranteed i.e. if the account holder challenges the payment you the Merchant have to coughed up then seek redress. This system seems to only work for UK Bank account holders, and there seems to be no form of account holder authentication. In the credit/debit card world fraud was rife (att he Merchant cost) until recently when 3D Secure  (branded "Verified by Visa" and "MasterCard SecureCode" ) was introduced.

This product does have a place in the marketplace, and would suit some small businesses.