SEPA custom notifications

The following is a guide to building custom notifications for merchants using GoCardless Pro or GoCardless Custom, and for partners. 

 

What are custom notifications?

In order for payers in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) to authorise merchants to take payments from them via SEPA, the local Direct Debit payment scheme, they must complete a mandate.

Once the mandate has been set up, there are 2 types of notifications that payers must receive:

1. Mandate setup confirmation
2. Pre-payment notifications

Merchants using GoCardless Pro or GoCardless Custom have the option to use GoCardless’ own notifications, or to create their own custom notifications. 

Partners can opt to create custom notifications as well. This will enable merchants who are using GoCardless through their app to offer their customers (payers) a consistent branding experience. 

You may also build your own payment pages to further customise your payers’ experience.

Custom notifications will need to be approved by GoCardless before being implemented.

 

How to build custom notifications

There are 3 steps to ensure compliance with SEPA scheme rules and GoCardless processes:

1. Create a notification including the payer’s mandate
2. Create notifications to inform payers of upcoming payments. Depending on your collection type, these notifications could relate to: 
1. Subscriptions of fixed amounts at regular intervals
2. Subscription amendments e.g., price changes
3. One-off payments, or payment schedules of varying amounts
3. Submit notifications to GoCardless for approval

The details for each are below, and there’s a summary table here.

 

1. Create a notification including the payer’s mandate

This tells the payer that their Direct Debit mandate has been correctly set up. 

There are 2 compulsory points to note around how the notification should be sent:

1. The mandate must be received by the payer within 3 business days of them providing their details
2. Confirmation can be provided via email or post

There are 3 compulsory elements to this notification, and 4 recommended elements.

Compulsory:

1. PDF link to the mandate. This information can be retrieved via the mandate pdf endpoint here.
2. Merchant name
• Partners - make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [name] to populate this field
3. Privacy notice. Text to read ‘Payments by GoCardless. Read the privacy notice.’

Recommended:

1. Heading that is identifiable to payers. For example ‘Important: Confirmation of the setup of your Direct Debit to [Merchant]’. 
• Partners - make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [scheme_identifiers: name] to populate this field
2. Payer details as obtained in the sign-up process
• Account holder name
• IBAN or local bank details - details must be redacted
• Bank name - retrievable from the bank details endpoint
3. Merchant email address and phone number
• Partners - make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [scheme_identifiers: email] and [scheme_identifiers: phone_number] to populate these fields
4. Remind payers of the name that will appear on their bank statements. Partners can retrieve this information by making a GET request to the creditors endpoint and pulling the field [scheme_identifiers: name].

 

2.1. Advance notice - subscriptions of fixed amounts at regular intervals

This tells the payer when to expect a series of payments of the same amount and regular intervals. A single notification to cover the entire subscription is sufficient.

This notification may be combined with the mandate setup confirmation.

There are 2 compulsory points to note around how the advance notice should be sent:

1. Notice must be received by the payer no less than 3 business days prior to the payment being charged
2. Confirmation can be provided via email and/or post

The advance notice itself has 3 compulsory elements and 5 recommended elements.

Compulsory:

1. Merchant name
• Partners - make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [name] to populate this field
2. Payment details
• Amount being charged 
• Charge dates, including final charge date, if applicable
• Description of what the charge is for
• Instruction that the amounts will be charged via Direct Debit
3. Privacy notice. Text to read ‘Payments by GoCardless. Read the privacy notice.’

Recommended:

1. Heading that is identifiable to payers. For example 'You've set up a Direct Debit subscription'.
2. Mandate reference. Make a GET request to the mandate endpoint, and pull [reference] to populate this field.
3. Payer details as obtained in the sign-up process
• Account holder name
• IBAN or local bank details - details must be redacted
• Bank name - retrievable from the bank details endpoint
4. Merchant email address and phone number
• Partners - make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [scheme_identifiers: email] and [scheme_identifiers: phone_number] to populate these fields
5. Remind payers of the name that will appear on their bank statements.
• Partners can retrieve this information by making a GET request to the creditors endpoint and pulling the field [scheme_identifiers: name].

You can see an example notification below.

 

2.2. Advance notice - subscription amendments

It is a SEPA Direct Debit scheme requirement for payers to be notified of any amendments to existing subscriptions, for example price changes.

Notice must be received by the payer at least 3 business days before further payments are charged under the new terms. 

The amendment notification has 4 compulsory elements and 2 recommended elements.

Compulsory:

1. Heading that is identifiable to payers. For example 'Your subscription has been updated'.
2. The name of the merchant charging the payer
• Partners - make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [name] to populate this field
3. Payment details
• Details of the change e.g., the previous charge amount and/or frequency, and the updated charge amount and/or frequency
• The date the change will come into effect
• Description of what the charge is for
4. Privacy notice. Text to read ‘Payments by GoCardless. Read the privacy notice.’

Recommended:

1. Remind payers of the name that will appear on their bank statements. Partners can retrieve this information by making a GET request to the creditors endpoint and pulling the field [scheme_identifiers: name].
2. Mandate reference. Make a GET request to the mandate endpoint, and pull [reference] to populate this field.

 

2.3 Advance notice - one-off payments, or payment schedules of varying amounts

This tells the payer when to expect a single payment, or any payment in a payment schedule of varying amounts.

The requirements are exactly the same as in section 2(a), except that for payment schedules of varying amounts, advance notice must be sent before each payment.

This notification may be combined with the mandate setup confirmation. However note that for payment schedules of varying amounts, only the first advance notice may be combined with the DD setup confirmation. Separate advance notice must be sent for each future payment.

You can see an example notification below.

 

3. Submit notifications to GoCardless for approval

Mock ups of your notifications must be sent to GoCardless for approval prior to your go-live date. Once you have written approval from GoCardless, you may implement the notifications. 

To test your notifications, you can sign up here for a sandbox account.

What if I’m a partner?

When creating a new partner app and going through our technical certification process, you’ll be able to submit custom notifications for approval through our partner portal.

 

Summary table

The below shows a summary of the relevant information in each type of custom notification. All information is required unless specified otherwise.

	Notification including the payer’s mandate	Advance notice
		Subscriptions of fixed amounts at regular intervals	Subscription amendments	One-off payments, or payment schedules of varying amounts
Heading that is identifiable to payers	Recommended	Recommended	Compulsory	Recommended
Merchant name	Compulsory	Compulsory	Compulsory	Compulsory
Payer details	Recommended	Recommended		Recommended
Merchant contact details	Recommended	Recommended		Recommended
PDF link to mandate	Compulsory
Privacy notice	Compulsory	Compulsory	Compulsory	Compulsory
Reminder of what will appear on payers' bank statements	Recommended	Recommended	Recommended	Recommended
Mandate reference		Recommended	Recommended	Recommended
Payment details		Compulsory	Compulsory	Compulsory