For merchants on our Pro or Plus package with their own Service User Numbers, it's possible to add a custom payment reference that will appear on most customer’s bank statements when creating a payment or subscription through the API.
Payment references have the following requirements:
- For Bacs - Must not exceed 10 characters
- For SEPA - Must not exceed 140 characters
- For BECS - Must not exceed 30 characters
- For BECS NZ - Must not exceed 12 characters
- For Autogiro - Must not exceed 11 characters
- For Betalingsservice - Must not exceed 30 characters
- For ACH - Must not exceed 10 characters
- For PAD - Must not exceed 12 characters.
- Excludes special characters (exceptions)
- Must not start with a space
- Must not end with a space
- Must contain more than one character
- Can’t consist of all the same characters
The full payment reference requirements across all schemes are available here.
Adding a reference to a one off payment using an HTTP request:
Adding a reference to every payment created via a subscription using an HTTP request:
To test payment references in sandbox, please email api@gocardless.com