Bacs offline mandate
Direct Debit Instruction - merchant guidance
Please note: Mandates created via Offline Mandates still require an email address so customers can receive email notifications regarding their payments. If you wish to manage your own notifications, you will need to enable the Custom notifications feature.
We understand that collecting your customer’s payment authorisation via an online form isn’t always possible, or doesn’t match how you would normally interact with your customers.
To help with this, we offer paper and phone authorisation collection options in the United Kingdom (Bacs). Before using these options, it’s important to be aware that there are compliance requirements that govern setting up authorisations in this way. So, please carefully follow the relevant process and guidance below.
Paper authorisation
Paper mandates are a great alternative to the online authorisation form if your customers do not have access to, or use of, a computer or other electronic device with sufficient internet access.
Process for collecting Bacs paper authorisation
First you will need to set up your customer in your GoCardless account:
There are three basic steps to setting up a customer in GoCardless, which must be completed in the following order:
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Create the customer record
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Add the customer’s bank account details
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Create a mandate against that bank account
The precise method you use to do this will be determined by how you've chosen to use GoCardless - via an API integration, using the GoCardless dashboard, or using a partner application.
Please follow the relevant guidance linked below:
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Create a mandate using a partner application - how you set up a customer and create a mandate will be dependent on the functionality available to you within the partner application you’re using
Next, find and download the mandate PDF by navigating to the customer page in the GoCardless dashboard.
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First, find the customer that has been created. Scroll through the list of customers or use the search box in the top-right corner.
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Navigate to their bank. There is a list of bank accounts on the customer screen, click on the bank account that was used for the mandate. Customers typically just have one account set up.
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Navigate to the mandate and export it. There is a list of mandates that the customer has set up with you at the bottom of the page. Select the most recent. On this page, click on the three dots in the top right corner and select “Export” to download a mandate PDF.
Print the mandate and ask your customer to sign it - for the Bacs paper form, there is not a specific signature box, but we recommend that you ask your customer to sign above the date box, like this:
Provide your customer with a non-changeable electronic (e.g. scanned) or paper copy of the completed mandate.
Keep a non-changeable electronic (e.g. scanned) or paper copy of the completed mandate in your own records for the duration of the mandate - i.e. until it is terminated/revoked (you must provide a copy of these at the request of GoCardless).
Phone authorisation
You can collect your customers' details over the phone using an approved transcript to obtain authorisation to set up a Bacs mandate on their behalf. This is particularly useful if you are speaking with your customers as part of your sales or on-boarding flow.
Please note: The following guidance only applies to authorisation obtained from your customer via the phone and not via the Internet or a Wireless Network.
Process for collecting Bacs phone authorisation:
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Download a copy of our approved transcript
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Use this transcript to collect your customers’ details and obtain their authorisation over the phone
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When asking the customer if they authorise the Bacs mandate, you must receive explicit consent - remember, silence does not equal consent
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Set up the customer in your GoCardless account
There are three basic steps to setting up a customer in GoCardless, which must be completed in the following order:
-
Create the customer record
-
Add the customer’s bank account details
-
Create a mandate against that bank account
The precise method you use to do this will be determined by how you've chosen to use GoCardless - via an API integration, using the GoCardless dashboard, or using a partner application. Please follow the relevant guidance linked below:
-
Create a mandate using a partner application - how you set up a customer and create a mandate will be dependent on the functionality available to you within the partner application you’re using
Keep the original or a duplicate audio recording of the phone authorisation in your own records for the duration of the mandate - i.e. until it is terminated/revoked (you must provide a copy of these at the request of GoCardless).