Bulk changing away from GoCardless
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.
Variant Forms of Bulk Changes
Standard Bulk Change
This refers to the most common form of a bulk change, whereby 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.
Please note: For Bacs 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 to cancel your Direct Debit mandates with GoCardless on the specified 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 customer data as normal, but the creation of mandates happening in batches will need to be managed with your new Direct Debit provider.
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 you should ensure the incoming provider is going to provide relevant protections for your data
(b) You will remain responsible for notifying your customers; your new provider will supply a template for this purpose.
(c) 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
(d) 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
As part of the bulk change process, we will 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 needs to set up new Direct Debit mandates on their end.
| 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 | The customer's 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 set up the Direct Debit mandates on their end. |
| 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, which 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, which is specified by 3 characters at the end of the SWIFT Bank Code ( from 8th to 11th ) |
| X | swift_account_number | The unique account number in SWIFT format, which contains the country code, the SWIFT Bank Code and the 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 (for Bacs only) 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's bank.
After this stage, if all mandates are transferred, your account will be scheduled for closure. If you intend to keep using your account, please let us know.
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 the 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.
All other schemes bulk change away form
Bacs specific
After you submit your bulk change request, we will email you a pre-filled deed. See the example below for guidance on how to fill out the remaining sections.
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 response time of the involved sponsor banks. We will not cancel any mandates or close your account until the bulk change has been authorised and completed.