BECS AU custom payment pages

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

Payers in Australia need to complete a Direct Debit Request (DDR) to authorise merchants to take payments from them via BECS AU, the local Direct Debit scheme.

Customers on GoCardless Advanced or GoCardless Pro, have the option to use GoCardless’ own payment pages, or to build their own custom payment pages 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 build and use custom payment pages 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 payment pages 

There are 5 steps to ensure compliance with the BECS AU scheme rules and GoCardless processes.

1. Compulsory Requirements

2. Recommended features

3. Additional steps for Partners

4. Summary table

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

Compulsory requirements

Listed below are the compulsory steps to follow for building your custom payment pages.

1. Host your payment pages with HTTPS

To ensure payers’ details are safely transmitted, your website must be configured to only accept secure (SSL - minimum of SHA-256 SSL support TLS.1 or TLS1.2) connections.

2. Information entry page

This is the sign-up page for your product / services, which is used to capture the payer information necessary to set up a DDR.

There are 3 compulsory elements:

Page heading that is identifiable to payers.	Title it ‘Set up a Direct Debit Request with [merchant name]’.
Entry points to collect payer details	Account holder name Account number BSB Email address
Page footer to let payers know how GoCardless’ service is provided and about 3rd party data controllers that power your website	Text to read ‘Payments securely processed by GoCardless. GoCardless Ltd (company registration number 07495895) is registered as a foreign company in Australia, ABN 17 606 261 74, and holds an Australian Financial Services licence (AFSL), number 478976. GoCardless uses personal data as described in their Privacy Notice.​​​​​​".

The footer is a requirement, as this upfront notice ensures compliance with regulatory requirements and data protection law. GoCardless, our merchants, and our partners could be in violation of this law if the notice is not included. You can read more here.

If the suggested footer isn’t technically possible, at a minimum you must include the following reference to GoCardless in your website privacy notice:

We use GoCardless to process your Direct Debit payments. More information on how GoCardless processes your payments, your personal data and your data protection rights, including your right to object, is available at gocardless.com/legal/privacy/

3. Summary and confirmation page

This page enables payers to view and verify their details before submitting them. 

There are 7 compulsory elements:

1. Page heading that is identifiable to payers. Title it ‘Direct Debit Request’. 

2. Date of the DDR set up

3. Payer details as collected in the information entry page

4. Payer bank name, which can be retrieved via the bank details lookup endpoint here.

5. DDR consent and electronic signature wording:“By signing and/or providing us with a valid instruction in respect to your Direct Debit Request, you have understood and agreed to the terms and conditions governing the debit arrangements between you and Merchant Name as set out in this Request and in your Direct Debit Service Agreement. You agree to execute this document by electronic signature and you are aware that by electronically signing this document you are executing a legally binding document.”

6. Creditor / merchant information -  This includes the merchant name, Direct Debit User ID (Your GoCardless contact will provide you with this) and the name that will appear on payers' bank statements.

7. PDF link to the DDR and the Direct Debit Service Agreement (the terms and conditions). This information can be retrieved via the mandate pdf endpoint here.

It’s a BECS AU scheme rule that payers must be shown the Service Agreement twice, to ensure they’re fully aware of the agreement they’re entering into. They must be shown once in the summary and confirmation page, and again via email notification once the DDR has been set up.

4. Setup success page

This page confirms to the payer that the DDR has been set up.

It is best practice, although not a scheme requirement, to include the following:

1. Page heading that is identifiable to payers, i.e., message to confirm DD setup, such as “Direct Debit set up successfully”

2. Reminder of what payers will see on their bank statements

5. GoCardless approval of payment pages

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.

Recommended features

Listed below are recommended features for your custom payment pages. These are recommended additions to the steps outlined in the Compulsory Requirements section.

Information entry page

Include a checkbox to enable DDR set up on multi-signatory accounts, where authorisation from more than one person is required. Not including this checkbox may mean DDRs attached to multi-signatory accounts are not accepted by payers' banks.

Text to read “If more than one person is required to authorise Direct Debits Requests on this account you should obtain the authorisation of all required parties before completing this form. By clicking 'Set up Direct Debit Request' you are confirming you have obtained this authorisation.”

Summary and confirmation page

Include an ‘edit’ button, allowing payers to amend any incorrect information.

We recommend you include the page footer to let payers know how GoCardless’ service is provided, and about 3rd party data controllers that power your website, on each of your payment pages (not just the information entry page). Text to read ‘Payments securely processed by GoCardless. GoCardless Ltd (company registration number 07495895) is registered as a foreign company in Australia, ABN 17 606 261 74, and holds an Australian Financial Services licence (AFSL), number 478976. GoCardless uses personal data as described in their Privacy Notice.’

Setup success page

We recommend you include the page footer to let payers know how GoCardless’ service is provided, and about 3rd party data controllers that power your website, on each of your payment pages (not just the information entry page). Text to read ‘Payments securely processed by GoCardless. GoCardless Ltd (company registration number 07495895) is registered as a foreign company in Australia, ABN 17 606 261 74, and holds an Australian Financial Services licence (AFSL), number 478976. GoCardless uses personal data as described in their Privacy Notice.’

Additional steps for Partners 

Information entry page

You must include the above ‘Payments by’ notice on your payment pages, or at minimum, enable the merchant to provide a link to their privacy notice at the information entry page.

Summary and confirmation page

Partners can make a GET request to the creditors endpoint to pull the creditor/merchant information cited in points 5 and 6 or the Summary and Confirmation page requirements listed above.

Query the API to retrieve the following:

• Merchant name - [name]

• Direct Debit authorisation code - [scheme_identifiers: reference]

• Name that will appear on payers’ bank statements - [scheme_identifiers: name]

GoCardless approval of payment pages

When creating a new partner app and going through our technical certification process, you’ll be able to submit custom payment pages for approval through our partner portal. 

Summary table 

The below shows a summary of the relevant information at each stage of the payment pages.

All information is required unless specified otherwise.

	INFORMATION ENTRY PAGE	SUMMARY & CONFIRMATION PAGE	SETUP SUCCESS PAGE
Page heading that is identifiable to payers	Displayed	Displayed	Displayed  Recommended
Account holder name	Captured	Displayed
Account number	Captured	Displayed
BSB	Captured	Displayed
Email address	Captured	Displayed
Page footer to let payers know how GoCardless’ service is provided, and about 3rd party data controllers that power your website	Displayed	Recommended	Recommended
Multi-signatory checkbox	Captured Recommended
Date of DDR set up		Displayed
Bank name		Displayed
DDR consent and electronic signature wording		Displayed
Edit button allowing payers to amend their details		Recommended
Merchant name		Displayed
Direct Debit User ID		Displayed
Name that will appear on payers’ bank statements		Displayed	Displayed Recommended
PDF link to DDR and DDR-SA		Displayed