Bacs bulk changing away from GoCardless

Please note: This article is only relevant for Bacs users

A Bulk Change from GoCardless allows you to move your Direct Debit mandates with us to a new provider. This involves setting up new Direct Debit mandates with your new provider and cancelling your existing ones with GoCardless, once the Direct Debit has been authorised from the necessary parties.

If you would like to move your Direct Debit mandates with GoCardless to a new provider, you can find a quick overview of the bulk change process with GoCardless below:

Bulk Change Away.png For a more detailed understanding of the process, please see this document created by Bacs.

This process can take between 3-5 weeks due to the complexities of processes the change by the banks involved. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, we have been seeing slower response times from sponsor banks which could potentially extend the timeframe further. We will not cancel any mandates or close your account until the bulk change has been authorised and completed.

Bulk Change Documents

The bulk change documents underpin the transfer and these need to be completed by both GoCardless and your new provider. Your new provider would then submit them to their sponsor bank to commence the bulk change process.

Please note, to commence this bulk change, GoCardless would send the bulk change documents directly to you. To avoid unnecessary delays, we do not accept documents that may have already been filled in by your new provider as the copies we provide have been pre-signed by the required signatories.

Hard Copies of the Bulk Change Documents

As per the recent changes to the Bacs system, we can provide you with signed digital copies of the bulk change to be able to move this part of the process forward.
If your provider requires these documents in an alternative format, please let us know so we can avoid any delays to the process.

Some sponsor banks may still insist on hard copies of the bulk change documents. If this is the case, we can prepare these to be sent to a given address but please be aware that hard copies require a wet signature from signatories within our organisation who may not always be available. Requesting a hard copy can, therefore, extend the timeframe of the bulk change by 1-2 weeks.

Variant Forms of Bulk Changes

Standard Bulk Change

This refers to the most common form of a bulk change whereby all of your mandates are being moved. This entails GoCardless exporting and sending you all of your customer data, which your new provider will use to set up Direct Debit mandates on their side. This can only be done once the bulk change has been authorised by both sponsor banks, our own and that of the new provider. We will then proceed with a cancellation of your Direct Debit mandates with GoCardless on the given bulk change date.

Phased Bulk Change

The option of a phased bulk change, where Direct Debit mandates are migrated in phases is also available and the process of the bulk change of this kind remains largely the same as that of a full bulk change.
We will provide you with your full customer data as normal but the creation of mandates happening in batches will need to be managed with your new Direct Debit provider. The cancellation of mandates will need to occur all at once, therefore we will issue the cancellation of mandates at the end of the bulk change on the given date.

Bulk Change for Select Mandates

You can request a bulk change where only select mandates are moved to a different Direct Debit provider but please be aware that we will need to be made aware of exactly which mandates to move. Within the GoCardless Dashboard, each mandate will be supplied a GoCardless Mandate ID, if a partial bulk change is required, we will need the Mandate IDs of each mandate you would like to bulk change.

Your Responsibilities Following the Bulk Change

Once the data has been transferred, please be aware of the following;

(a) you will remain responsible for the data during and after the transfer, so should ensure the incoming provider is going to provide relevant protections for your data

(b) following the bulk change, your new provider accepts responsibility for all indemnity claims that are raised, both against collections made following the transfer, and also for Direct Debit collections made before the bulk change

(c) you remain liable to us for any indemnity claims (chargebacks) on Direct Debit mandates that are not bulk changed from GoCardless (i.e. if your new provider sets up new mandates entirely rather than transferring them through a bulk change). Should this occur, it could incur a negative balance on your GoCardless account which would need to be recouped.

Your Customer Data

Part of the bulk change process is to send you a list of your customer data. The data will be sent to you through secure channels once the bulk change has been authorised by the relevant parties. This data will include all information your new provider will need to set up new Direct Debit mandates on their side.

This will be sent to you in a csv file and the format of the spreadsheet can be found below:

COLUMN	COLUMN TITLE	DETAILS
A	id	The GoCardless customer ID
B	customer_name	The full name of the customer
C	given_name	The first name given for the customer
D	family_name	The surname of the customer
E	company_name	The company name of the customer, if given
F	email	The customer email address
G	address_line1	The first line of the customer’s address
H	address_line2	The second line of the customer’s address
I	address_line3	The third line of the customer’s address
J	city	The customer’s city
K	postal_code	The customer’s postal code
L	country	The country in which the customer resides
M	custom_reference	Any custom reference that may have been applied to the customer’s record
N	account_holder_name	The name given for the account holder (usually the same as the customer name)
O	mandate_id	The GoCardless Mandate ID
P	scheme	The Direct Debit scheme which the mandate is associated with.
Q	mandate_reference	Sometimes known as the Billing Reference. This will be a unique code for a Direct Debit mandate. This will be needed by your new providers when they are setting up the Direct Debit mandates on their side.
R	mandate_status	The current status of the Direct Debit mandate
S	bank_account_id	The GoCardless bank account ID
T	bank_account_bic	Bank Identification Code, that is used to identify a specific bank. Contains 8 to 11 characters
U	iban	The specific account number that is used to identify the individual bank account.
V	swift_bank_code	The identification Code of a Bank that consists of 8 characters. Bank code has to be used for international transactions. See the example: MIDLGB22
W	swift_branch_code	The branch identification code, that is specified by 3 characters in the end of SWIFT Bank Code ( from 8th to 11th )
X	swift_account_number	The unique account number in SWIFT format, that contains country code, SWIFT Bank Code and individual number with characters. See the example: GB22MIDL12345612345678

We will only be providing the customer data in this exact format.

If your new provider requests that you fill out a spreadsheet they provide with the customer data, they should be able to support you in its completion using the export we provide. If any further data is required by your new provider, for instance, your transaction history with GoCardless, this will need to be exported directly from your GoCardless Dashboard.

Cancellation of your Direct Debit Mandates

The final stage of your bulk change would be for GoCardless to cancel the Direct Debit mandates on the GoCardless side once the bulk change has been authorised and the customer data is provided. This would be done on the bulk change date which is initially confirmed unless a new bulk change date is explicitly requested.

GoCardless would only cancel the Direct Debit mandates on the GoCardless account, we would not cease payments or subscriptions or take over management of your payments at any point. We strongly advise that you stop collecting payments 5-7 days prior to the bulk change date to ensure your payment runs are not affected during the transfer. Any payments that are submitted at the time the cancellation is issued will still be collected unless they are failed by the customer bank.

After this stage, we would schedule your account for closure, so please do let us know if you wish to keep your account with us open.

To Get Your Bulk Change Started

If you have read through our process and would like to proceed with a bulk change away from GoCardless, please complete this form and the relevant team will be in touch within 2 working days. If you do not hear back from us in two working days please reach out to our Support team for further assistance.