Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) notification requirements (UK)
Please note: Please note: The Instant Bank Pay feature (including Variable Recurring Payments) is currently available for all merchants based in UK, US, Canada, EEA, Australia, and New Zealand who are collecting GBP payments from customers in the UK.
Please register your interest here if you'd like to be notified when Instant Bank Pay is available in your region.
The following is a guide to building Custom Notifications for merchants using GoCardless Advanced or GoCardless Pro and for partners, using the add-on feature Custom Checkout Experience. See our Pricing page for more details.
Once your customers have provided consent to a payment agreement, allowing you to collect variable recurring payments, there are 4 types of notification that your customers should then receive:
- Payment agreement set up confirmation & copy of payer terms
- Successful upfront payment (optional if you have already displayed this information to the payer via your payment pages)
- Advance notice
- Successful ongoing payments
Merchants using GoCardless Advanced or GoCardless Pro 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 (consumers) a consistent branding experience.
Please note: Before designing and sending custom notifications, you should be aware that there are compliance requirements for the content and formatting of these notifications. Once ready, custom notifications have to receive a sign off by GoCardless, and you could be asked to remove or amend any part of the signed off notifications at any time if notified to do so.
How to build custom notifications
There are 4 steps to ensure compliance with the Faster Payment System scheme rules and GoCardless processes:
- Create your custom notifications
- Include GoCardless’ regulatory footer
- Additional steps for partners
- Submit successful payment notification to GoCardless for approval
1.1 Payment agreement set up confirmation
This tells the payer that their VRP agreement has been successfully set up. Even if you chose to display this information on a success screen (see our VRP Custom Payment Page guidance for more information) you must still email the payer with a copy of the terms and conditions which apply to VRP agreement.
This notice must be received by the payer immediately after the VRP agreement has been set up with the payer’s bank.
| Requirement |
Detailed explanation |
Our recommendation |
| Confirmation of successful VRP agreement set up |
After a VRP mandate has been set up with the payer’s bank, you must inform payers that they have successfully set up a VRP agreement. |
“Dear [payer] You have successfully set up a payment agreement. Your payment agreement reference is [___] and the details are as follows: To: [Payee i.e. your legal / trading name] Please review and save the attached Terms and Conditions which apply to your payment agreement. Our payment provider, GoCardless will save your payment details and can use these to process future refunds. If you have any questions about your payment agreement, please contact [Payee i.e. your legal / trading name] in the first instance.” +PDF copy of terms |
|
Information related to their VRP agreement (parameters and agreement reference) |
You must provide payers with all information related to the agreement - this means the payment reference, and repeating the consent parameters agreed to by the payer. |
|
|
Saving payment details |
You must let payers know that GoCardless will save their payment details in order to process future refunds. |
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Copy of payer terms |
You must also provide a copy of GoCardless’ payer terms. These can be found here - please download these and provide them as a PDF. |
1.2. Successful upfront payment
This confirms to the payer that the upfront payment that you took at the time of them setting up their payment agreement was successful. This is optional because you can choose to display this information on a success screen instead - see our VRP Custom Payment Page guidance for more information.
| Requirement |
Detailed explanation |
Our recommendation |
|
Information related to successful payment |
You should inform the payer that a payment was successful and provide them with these details about the payment:
|
“Dear [payer] Your payment of £[amount] to [payee - your legal / trading name] was successfully submitted to your bank. The payment was for [description], with payment reference [reference]. Payments to UK banks are normally instant, but may take up to 24 hours or longer in some cases.” |
1.3. Advance notice
This tells the payer when to expect a payment which they have authorised via their VRP agreement.
This notice must be received by the payer no later than 48 hours prior to the payment being charged.
| Requirement |
Detailed explanation |
Our recommendation |
|
Information related to an upcoming payment |
You should inform the payer that a payment is due and provide them with these details about the payment:
|
“Dear [payer] A payment of £[amount] to [payee - your legal / trading name] for [description] is due to be taken from your [name of bank] account on [date]. If the account doesn’t have sufficient funds, add them now to prevent any disruption. If you have any questions, or don’t recognise this payment, please contact [Payee i.e. your legal / trading name] in the first instance.” |
1.4. Successful ongoing payments
This confirms to the payer that any ongoing payments have been successful.
| Requirement |
Detailed explanation |
Our recommendation |
|
Information related to successful payment |
You should inform the payer that a payment was successful and provide them with these details about the payment:
|
“Dear [payer] Your payment of £[amount] to [payee - your legal / trading name] was successfully submitted to your bank. The payment was for [description], with payment reference [reference]. Payments to UK banks are normally instant, but may take up to 24 hours or longer in some cases.” |
2. Regulatory footer
This confirms to the payer that any ongoing payments have been successful.
| Requirement |
Detailed explanation |
Our recommendation |
|
Regulatory footer & privacy notice |
When sending custom notifications, you should include a footer to let consumers know how GoCardless’ service is provided and how data is controlled |
“Payments securely processed by GoCardless. GoCardless Ltd (company registration number 07495895) is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, registration number 597190, for the provision of payment services. GoCardless uses personal data as described in their Privacy Notice.” |
3. Additional steps for partners
Partners can use the creditors endpoint to retrieve the relevant merchant information (such as legal / trading name) required for the successful payment notification.
4. GoCardless’ approval process
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. More information can be found below and here.
Merchants:
You must submit your notifications to GoCardless through our Support Centre.
Partners:
You must submit your notifications to GoCardless for approval through our Partner Portal.
Summary table
The below shows a summary of the relevant information for your VRP custom notifications:
| PAYMENT AGREEMENT SET UP | SUCCESSFUL UPFRONT |
ADVANCE NOTICE |
SUCCESSFUL ONGOING PAYMENTS | |
|
Payer’s first name |
Displayed (optional) |
Displayed (optional) | Displayed (optional) | Displayed (optional) |
|
Payer’s last name |
Displayed (optional) | Displayed (optional) | Displayed (optional) | Displayed (optional) |
|
Your legal name (and trading name if different to your legal name) |
Displayed | Displayed (optional) | Displayed | Displayed (optional) |
|
Your company number |
Displayed | |||
|
Payment description |
Displayed (optional) | Displayed (optional) | Displayed (optional) | Displayed (optional) |
|
Payment reference |
Displayed | Displayed | ||
|
Maximum amount per time window and currency |
Displayed | |||
|
Maximum amount per payment and currency |
Displayed | |||
|
Expiry date |
Displayed | |||
|
Payment amount and currency |
Displayed | Displayed | Displayed | |
|
Payment due date |
Displayed | |||
|
GoCardless’ Terms of Use |
Displayed | |||
|
Regulatory status disclosure |
Displayed | Displayed | Displayed | Displayed |
|
Privacy notice |
Displayed | Displayed | Displayed | Displayed |