Recurring Pay by Bank notification requirements UK (Commercial)
Pay by Bank (formerly known as Instant Bank Pay) is available to eligible merchants based in the UK, US, Canada and the EEA who collect GBP payments from customers in the UK. It’s also available in Australia (via PayTo) and New Zealand.
Recurring Pay by Bank (formerly known as Variable Recurring Payments) is only available to eligible merchants based in the UK who collect GBP payments from customers in the UK.
If Pay by Bank or Recurring Pay by Bank isn’t yet available to you, register your interest here and we’ll let you know when it is.
The following is a guide to building custom notifications for merchants and for partners, using the add-on feature Custom Checkout Experience. See our Pricing page for more details.
What is Recurring Pay by Bank (commercial)?
Recurring Pay by Bank payments, also known as commercial VRPs (cVRPs), allow recurring payments of varying amounts to be made from a payer’s bank account to a third party, typically a business.
To take Recurring Pay by Bank payments, your customers must give their explicit consent. This includes agreeing to the payment limits, confirming you as the payee, and accepting the GoCardless Payer Terms. Customers can do this online using your payment pages when they set up their payment agreement. In this guide, “payment agreement” and “Recurring Pay by Bank agreement” mean the same thing.
Once your customers have provided consent to a payment agreement, allowing you to collect Recurring Pay by Bank (commercial) payments, there are 5 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
Expiry notice
Successful ongoing payments
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 your custom notifications to GoCardless for approval
1. Create your custom notifications
1.1 Payment agreement set up confirmation (Required)
This tells the payer that their Recurring Pay by Bank agreement has been successfully set up. Even if you choose to display this information on a success screen (see our Custom Payment Page guidance for more information) you must still email the payer with a copy of the terms and conditions which apply to their Recurring Pay by Bank agreement.
This notice must be received by the payer immediately after the Recurring Pay by Bank agreement has been set up with the payer’s bank.
| Requirement | Detailed explanation | Our recommendation |
|---|---|---|
|
Confirmation of successful Recurring Pay by Bank agreement set up
|
After a Recurring Pay by Bank agreement has been set up with the payer’s bank, you must inform payers that they have successfully set up a Recurring Pay by Bank 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] Description: ___ Maximum amount per [time window]: £___ Maximum amount per payment: £___ Expiry date: ___
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.”
|
| Information related to their Recurring Pay by Bank agreement (parameters and payment agreement reference) | You must provide payers with all information related to the agreement - this means the payment agreement 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. | |
| 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 (Optional)
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 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], under payment agreement [payment agreement reference]. Payments to UK banks are normally instant, but may take up to 24 hours or longer in some cases.” |
1.3 Advance notice for upcoming payments for Recurring Pay by Bank (Required if applicable)
This notice informs the payer when to expect a payment they have authorised via their Recurring Pay by Bank agreement.
The notification must be received by the payer before the payment is taken. You are required to send this notice for each payment, where the payment amount or frequency is variable; where the payment amount and frequency remain fixed, or the payer is present in the session, this notice is optional.
However, we recognise there may be cases where this is not feasible, for example, where multiple payments are processed within a single day, multiple notices might not work and could lead to confusion. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to assess what is appropriate based on your use case and, most importantly, the best interests of the payer.
For most cases, we would recommend at least a day’s notice to let payers know that the payment is being taken.
| Requirement | Detailed explanation | Our recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Information related to an upcoming payment |
You must 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] (company number [___]) for [description] is due to be taken from your [name of bank] account on [date], under payment agreement [payment agreement reference].
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.
If you wish to cancel the payment agreement, please contact [Payee i.e. your legal / trading name] or your bank.” |
1.4 Advance notice for expiry of Recurring Pay by Bank agreement (Required if applicable)
This tells the payer that their consent which they have authorised via their Recurring Pay by Bank agreement is expiring.
This notice must be received by the payer no later than 48 hours prior to the expiration date.
If the consent is set up without an end date, then this notification is not required.
| Requirement | Detailed explanation | Our recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Information related to expiring Recurring Pay by Bank agreement |
You must inform the payer that their Recurring Pay by Bank agreement is expiring and provide them with all information related to the Recurring Pay by Bank agreement - this means the payment agreement reference, and repeating the original consent parameters agreed to by the payer and including the date of expiration.
You must also include information on:
|
“Dear [payer]
Your Recurring Pay by Bank agreement to [payee - your legal / trading name] is expiring on [date].
Your payment agreement reference is [___] and the details are as follows:
Description: ___ Maximum amount per [time window]: £___ Maximum amount per payment: £___
Please note that once this payment agreement has expired, [payee - your legal / trading name] will no longer be able to take payments for the [service description], which means the service [description of consequences].
To continue to use the [service], you will be required to set up a new payment agreement, by following the steps below [include link to Recurring Pay by Bank agreement set up or outline steps].”
|
1.5 Successful ongoing payments (Required)
This confirms to the payer that any ongoing payments have been successful.
| Requirement | Detailed explanation | Our recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Information related to successful payment |
You must 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], under payment agreement [payment agreement reference]. Payments to UK banks are normally instant, but may take up to 24 hours or longer in some cases.” |
2. Regulatory footer
| Requirement | Detailed explanation | Our recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Regulatory footer & privacy notice |
When sending custom notifications, you must 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 your custom notifications.
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 table below shows a summary of the relevant information for your Recurring Pay by Bank custom notifications:
| PAYMENT AGREEMENT SET UP | SUCCESSFUL UPFRONT PAYMENT |
ADVANCE NOTICE - Upcoming Payments |
ADVANCE NOTICE - Expiry of Payment Agreement |
SUCCESSFUL ONGOING PAYMENTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payer’s first name | Recommended | Recommended | Recommended | Recommended | Recommended |
| Payer’s last name | Recommended | Recommended | Recommended | Recommended | Recommended |
| Your legal name (and trading name if different to your legal name) | Compulsory | Recommended | Compulsory | Compulsory | Compulsory |
| Your company number | Compulsory (if applicable) |
||||
| Payment description | Recommended | Recommended | Recommended | Recommended | Recommended |
| Payment agreement reference | Compulsory | Compulsory | Compulsory | Compulsory | |
| Payment reference | Compulsory (if applicable) |
Compulsory | Compulsory | ||
| Maximum amount per time window and currency | Compulsory | Compulsory | |||
| Maximum amount per payment and currency | Compulsory | Compulsory | |||
| Expiry date | Compulsory | Compulsory | |||
| Payment amount and currency | Compulsory | Compulsory | Compulsory | ||
| Payment due date | Compulsory | ||||
| Information on what to do if payer does not recognise the payment and cancellation | Compulsory | ||||
| Information on expiring payment agreement consequences and how to set up a new payment agreement. | Compulsory | ||||
| GoCardless’ Payer Terms | Compulsory | ||||
| Information about saving payment details | Compulsory | ||||
| Regulatory footer | Compulsory | Compulsory | Compulsory | Compulsory | Compulsory |
| Privacy notice | Compulsory | Compulsory | Compulsory | Compulsory | Compulsory |