Customer bank statement references
This article provides a guide to the references shown on customer (payer) bank statements for payments collected through GoCardless.
Please note that this is a guide only. Whilst these are the references provided to banks when collecting payment from customers' bank accounts, we are not able to guarantee that the same reference will appear on their bank statement in its entirety.
Please note the following for the table below:
Standard payer references are partly comprised of the merchant name you entered in the GoCardless dashboard in the 'Add your brand' section' and this can be a useful indicator for your customer to understand who they are paying.
IMPORTANT: The following applies to BACS, SEPA & Autogiro mandates if you’re using a partner integration.
If you’re currently using a partner integration, you will need to take additional steps to match your new customer mandates once your Service User Number (SUN) is set up to ensure your payment collection isn’t interrupted.
When the SUN is changed, the existing mandates are silently cancelled (i.e. without a customer email) from the old scheme identifier and silently set up on the new one.
If the integration you’re using can handle mandate-replaced events, then the mandate IDs will be updated automatically in their application. Otherwise, the mandates will need to be matched to the customer record manually. We recommend reaching out to the partner integration you’re using to confirm this.
| SCHEME | SCHEME REGION (CUSTOMER LOCATION) | STANDARD PAYER REFERENCES | PAYER REFERENCES if you choose Merchant Name on Payer Bank Statements feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACH | United States | GC: [Merchant name] Reference field = [GoCardless random string] Individual identification = [GoCardless random string] + [payment reference] |
[Merchant name] Reference field = [Merchant prefix (2 characters)] + [GoCardless random string] Individual identification = [GoCardless random string] + [payment reference] |
| Autogiro | Sweden | G [Merchant name]-[unique reference] | [BANKGIRONUMMER_NAME]-[Merchant name]-[unique reference] |
| Bacs | United Kingdom | GOCARDLESS-[Merchant name]-[Mandate reference] | [SUN_NAME] [Mandate reference]-[Payment reference] |
| BECS | Australia | GOCARDLESS-[Merchant name]-[Mandate reference]-[Payment reference] | [MERCHANT_NAME]-[Mandate reference]-[Payment reference] |
| BECS NZ | New Zealand | GOCARDLESS Reference field = [Payment reference] Particulars field = [merchant name] Code field = [unique reference] |
MERCHANT NAME Reference field = [Payment reference] Particulars field = [empty] Code field = [unique reference] |
| Betalingsservice | Denmark | (BS) GOCARDLESS-[Payment reference] | (BS) [PBS_NAME]-[Payment reference] |
| PAD | Canada | GoCardless | [Merchant_name] |
| SEPA | Eurozone | GOCARDLESS-[Mandate reference]-[Payment reference] | GC re [CID_NAME]-[Mandate reference]-[Payment reference] |
Character limits
ACH
| STANDARD | PLUS | PRO/CUSTOM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant Name Character Limit | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Additional Reference Field Character Limit | 10 | 10 | 10 |
AUTOGIRO
| STANDARD | PLUS | PRO/CUSTOM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant Name Character Limit | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Additional Reference Field Character Limit | 12 | 12 | 12 |
BACS
| STANDARD | PLUS | PRO/CUSTOM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant Name Character Limit | 18 | 18 | 18 |
| Additional Reference Field Character Limit | 18 | 18 | 18 |
BECS
| STANDARD | PLUS | PRO/CUSTOM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant Name Character Limit | 10 | 16 | 16 |
| Additional Reference Field Character Limit | 18 | 18 | 18 |
BECS NZ
| STANDARD | PLUS | PRO/CUSTOM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant Name Character Limit | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Additional Reference Field Character Limit | 12 | 12 | 12 |
BETALINGSSERVICE
| STANDARD | PLUS | PRO/CUSTOM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant Name Character Limit | 38 | 38 | 38 |
| Additional Reference Field Character Limit | 30 | 30 | 30 |
PAD
| STANDARD | PLUS | PRO/CUSTOM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant Name Character Limit | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| Additional Reference Field Character Limit | No reference field available | ||
SEPA
| STANDARD | PLUS | PRO/CUSTOM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant Name Character Limit | 70 | 70 | 70 |
| Additional Reference Field Character Limit | 140 | 140 | 140 |