This article assumes that you currently have an integration with our Legacy API.
If you don't have an existing integration or if you're using our current API then this article won't apply to you - you can view our current API documentation here.
Mandates
Mandates are now much more flexible! One off payments and subscriptions can be created against the same mandate.
You can now access and charge all of your mandates through your integration, even if they were created through the Dashboard, a partner, or another integration - they're no longer restricted to being charged via the same application that the customer set up with.
Changing/Editing subscriptions
You’re able to change the amount, date and frequency of a subscription through the API by cancelling the existing subscription and creating a new one with updated details, without the customer needing to re-authorise it. The name and metadata of an existing subscription can also be edited via the API.
Sandbox Testing Tools
We provide scenario simulators which allow you to test that your integration handles common paths correctly, such as successfully collected and failed payments, and a comprehensive webhook testing tool which supports our new more-detailed events.
Plus and Pro Packages
GoCardless now offers additional packages, which offer great benefits such as;
- Your company name on customer’s bank statements using your own SUN
- Hosting your own payment pages
- Collecting customer details by phone or paper mandates
Access to other payment schemes
Using the new API, you'll be able to collect payments in GBP, EUR and SEK - all from the same GoCardless account! Any new schemes or currencies we add in the future will also become available through the same API.
Versioned API, with more comprehensive, automatically-updated client libraries
We have client libraries for:
- Python
- Ruby
- Java
- PHP
- .NET
The client libraries are automatically updated when we make any improvements and changes to our API, or release new major versions, so future upgrades are easier and you can take advantage of new features without waiting.
Webhook Improvements
We now send far more comprehensive real time webhooks for every Event that occurs in your GoCardless account, ensuring that you're always up to date with what's happening. You're then able to take automated responses such as retrying a failed payment or updating your database when a payment is confirmed.
You're also able to send webhooks to multiple endpoints.
Events
Events are stored every time a resource changes status, for example a payment being created or a mandate cancellation. You can query and filter Events through the API - so you no longer need to handle webhooks to get updates.
Events have much more detail than our old webhooks. Where the Legacy API would just let you know a payment has changed status to "failed", the current API provides a human-readable description of why the payment failed along with reason codes and report information from the customer's bank.
Partial refunds
Payments can be partially refunded through the new API. Please note that the ability to refund payments is assessed by our Account Verification team, and will be processed at our discretion.
Multiple access tokens and scopes
You can create multiple access tokens for your account, and you can specify the scope of each. You can allow read-only access, or read-write to allow for resource creation and changes to be made on your account. This makes it easier to securely link multiple systems with GoCardless, to limit the control an integration has, and to cycle credentials without any downtime.
Multiple Users on the Dashboard
You can now create an unlimited number of users that can access your GoCardless Dashboard. You can decide the level of access that each user has - read only, read-write, or admin. Each user can choose whether or not to receive notifications about what's going on in your account, such as new customers or failed payments.
New OAuth Partner App features
As well as everything above, the new API includes the following improvements for Partners:
- Integrate our onboarding flow to your platform. Merchants no longer need to leave your platform to get onboarded with GoCardless. Instead you can direct them to our hosted onboarding flow and then redirect them back once they’ve completed it.
- Get verification status for your merchants. You can now see your merchants’ verification status via the API, enabling you to alert merchants that they won’t receive payouts until they’ve been fully verified.
- Specify App fees at a per-payment level. This gives more flexibility over how you charge App fees. Previously we only allowed a single App fee for all payments created through the App.
- Design and host custom payment pages. This means that all customers authorising payments to merchants via your App can use your own hosted pages, enabling you to offer merchants a more consistent checkout experience.
You can find a full guide to upgrading your Partner integration here and full guide to building a Partner integration here.
On-going improvements and upgrades
While the Legacy API will only receive security updates, our current API is in active development and receives regular updates and new features.