Verified Mandates FAQs

• Is this feature available to me?
• What benefit does GoCardless Protect+ add to Verified Mandates?
• What will happen if I use Verified Mandates before getting it enabled or with an unsupported scheme?
• How does this relate to open banking?
• Is it safe and secure to use Verified Mandates?
• I connect to GoCardless through partner software, can I use this feature?
• I only use the GoCardless dashboard, can I use this feature?
• How much does it cost?
• Who can I contact for support?

Is this feature available to me?

Verified Mandates is currently available for the following schemes: Bacs in the UK, ACH in the US, Autogiro in Sweden, and SEPA in Germany and France.

Here is a full list of supported Bank Debit schemes and whether the Verified Mandates mechanism is available:

Verified mandates can only be implemented via the GoCardless API and is not yet available through the dashboard.

If you use GoCardless on an Advanced or Pro plan, you will have Verified Mandates enabled by default and can begin using it in your live environment. If you are on an Enterprise plan, please get in touch with your account manager or with our support team to request the feature and we will respond to your request as soon as possible.

If you use Billing Request Flows, you can choose to implement Verified Mandates on its own or combined with the rest of our anti-fraud solution, GoCardless Protect+. If you use Redirect Flows, you can only use Verified Mandates as a part of GoCardless Protect+.  

Both GoCardless Protect+ and Verified Mandates are available only to approved integrators. If you are interested in either GoCardless Protect+ or Verified Mandates, please get in touch with your account manager.

To test Verified Mandates in our sandbox environment, you can sign up here for a sandbox account. The feature is automatically enabled for all sandbox accounts.

What benefit does GoCardless Protect+ add to Verified Mandates?

Without GoCardless Protect+, you can still use Verified Mandates by enabling the Verified Mandates feature on a standalone basis. You can choose to verify all payers, verify only when Verified Mandates is available for the payer’s scheme, or only when it is required by the scheme. However, when GoCardless Protect+ is also enabled, our Detect engine will decide when a bank account should be verified, based on a risk score that our payment intelligence solution calculates. Putting all payers through Verified Mandates can have a significant impact on conversion as we have seen with some of our merchants. Combining Verified Mandates with GoCardless Protect+ provides a balance, only putting riskier payers through a Verified Mandate (our recommended flow).

What will happen if I use Verified Mandates before getting it enabled or with an unsupported scheme?

If you attempt to use Verified Mandates via the Billing Request API when it is not enabled for your account, an error will be returned upon creating the request. 

Similarly, if you have selected to always verify a bank account (by setting the verify attribute to always) and attempt to verify for an unsupported scheme, the Billing Request will fail with an error explaining that verification is not yet available for the scheme.

How does this relate to open banking?

Verified Mandates is a fraud prevention solution that protects against payer fraud by leveraging open banking functionality. 

Open Banking is the secure way to give providers (like GoCardless) access to your customers' financial information, so your business can collect payments from them. You can learn more about open banking here.

Is it safe and secure to use Verified Mandates?

With Verified Mandates, your customers will be seamlessly logged into their online banking (via mobile or desktop) to verify their information without needing to remember their account or sort code. The bank account details are securely transferred to GoCardless and those details are used to complete customer authorised debits.

GoCardless is an FCA-regulated financial services provider and a registered Third Party Provider of Open Banking services. When a customer enters their bank’s login credentials, they will do so from within their bank’s native environment, whether that’s on the bank’s website or in the bank’s mobile app. The bank uses Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) to identify the customer, which adds an extra layer of security to the login process and safeguards the customer’s account. As a third party, GoCardless will never ask the customer to provide it with the bank’s login credentials. 

I connect to GoCardless through partner software, can I use this feature?

If your partner has implemented the Billing Requests API or is using Redirect Flows with GoCardless Protect+, you can access Verified Mandates, but we recommend getting in touch with your account manager first.

If your partner hasn’t implemented the Billing Requests API or is not using Redirect Flows with GoCardless Protect+, you can still access Verified Mandates through the API or an API test tool such as Postman. Please note that you may need to manually match mandate records to entities in the partner software.

I only use the GoCardless dashboard, can I use this feature?

If Protect+ is enabled for you, then Protect+ will create Verified Mandates using billing requests through GoCardless dashboard. Otherwise, Verified Mandates is not yet available for dashboard users and can only be used through the GoCardless API. Please contact api@gocardless.com for any questions about the API.

How much does it cost?

If you use GoCardless on an Advanced or Pro plan, Verified Mandates is included in your transaction fee.

Who can I contact for support?

Please get in touch with our specialist team who can help you with any questions you have about this feature.