SEPA Direct Debit
SEPA - the Single Euro Payments Area - is a European Union (EU) initiative to harmonise payments across the Eurozone. Its goal is to make European payments as easy and cheap as domestic ones by creating a single market for euro-denominated payments.
You can find more information on the countries you can collect from using SEPA in this article.
SEPA Direct Debit is made up of two schemes:
SEPA CORE
- Can be used with all payers
- Mandatory for all SEPA banks offering Euro-denominated Direct Debit
- Payers have an unconditional right to a refund within eight weeks of the debit date.
- Payers can get a refund from their bank for unauthorised SEPA payments for up to 13 months.
SEPA B2B
- Only available if you are collecting Direct Debit payments from other businesses
- An optional scheme, not all banks are able to offer it
- Refunds for unauthorised SEPA payments are only possible if the payer proves that they did not agree to a B2B mandate (up to 13 months after the debit date).
Please note: GoCardless currently only offers SEPA Core