SEPA custom notifications

The following is a guide to building custom notifications for customers on  GoCardless Advanced or GoCardless Pro and for partners, using the add-on feature Custom checkout experience and payer 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

Customers on GoCardless Advanced or GoCardless Pro have the option to use GoCardless’ own notifications or to create their own custom notifications by using our Custom checkout experience and payer notifications add-on feature. Please note there is an additional “add-on” monthly fee called Custom checkout experience and payer 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.

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:

• Subscriptions of fixed amounts at regular intervals

• Subscription amendments e.g., price change, pause or resume

• 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 at the bottom of this article.

The steps outlined below are a requirement of the SEPA scheme in order for your custom notifications to be compliant. The recommended features are in addition to the compulsory requirements and we strongly recommend using these

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:

PDF link to the mandate	This information can be retrieved via the mandate pdf endpoint here
Merchant name	Partners - make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [name] to populate this field
Regulatory footer & privacy notice	Text to read ‘Payments securely processed by GoCardless. GoCardless SAS (company registration number 834 422 180, R.C.S. PARIS), share capital 6 000 000 EUR, is authorised by the ACPR (French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority), Bank Code (CIB) 17118, for the provision of payment services. GoCardless uses personal data as described in their Privacy Notice.'

Recommended:

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
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
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
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 1 business day 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 6 recommended elements.

Compulsory:

Merchant name	Partners - make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [name] to populate this field
Payment details	Amount being charged  Charge dates, including final charge date, if applicable Instruction that the amounts will be charged via Direct Debit
Regulatory footer & privacy notice	Text to read ‘Payments securely processed by GoCardless. GoCardless SAS (company registration number 834 422 180, R.C.S. PARIS), share capital 6 000 000 EUR, is authorised by the ACPR (French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority), Bank Code (CIB) 17118, for the provision of payment services. GoCardless uses personal data as described in their Privacy Notice.'

Recommended:

Heading that is identifiable to payers	For example 'You've set up a Direct Debit subscription'.
Mandate reference	Make a GET request to the mandate endpoint, and pull [reference] to populate this field.
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
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
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].
Payment details	Description of what the charge is for

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 a price change, pause or resume.

Notice must be received by the payer at least 1 business day before further payments are charged under the new terms.

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

Compulsory:

Heading that is identifiable to payers	For example 'Your subscription has been updated'.
The name of the merchant charging the payer	Partners - make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [name] to populate this field
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
Privacy notice	Text to read ‘Payments by GoCardless. Read the privacy notice.’

Recommended:

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].
Mandate reference	Partners can retrieve this information by making a GET request to the mandate endpoint, and pulling [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.

3. Submit notifications to GoCardless for approval

Example templates of your payment pages must be sent to GoCardless for approval prior to your go-live date. Once you have written approval from GoCardless, you may implement the payment pages. 

To test your payment pages, 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.

		ADVANCE NOTICE
	Notification including the payer's mandate	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
Regulatory footer & 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