Eurozone (SEPA) bulk change process
To kickstart the bulk change process, you will first need to create a GoCardless account and complete the verification process.
Please note: GoCardless take all requests of this nature on a case-by-case basis. We require certain criteria to be met to process a bulk change.
To begin, navigate to the Customer section in your dashboard and click Continue on the banner that says Migrate from another Direct Debit provider.
You should advise your current provider that you wish to bulk change away from them, marking the beginning of the process.
When mandates are transferred to GoCardless (on the date agreed by all parties concerned), GoCardless will amend them with their new details. These details include any new references and a change to the Creditor Identifier (CID), if applicable.
Important: Payments/subscriptions will not transfer over from your previous provider. You will need to set these up again after customers have been imported to your GoCardless dashboard.
The steps involved in the Bulk Change process and the information required from you depend on the migration option you choose:
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Option 1 |
Please note: This option is only available for merchants on custom pricing packages. |
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Option 2 |
Please note: This option is only available for merchants on custom pricing packages. |
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Option 3 |
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Option 4 |
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For each option, different columns will need to be completed in the bulk change CSV template; in some cases, some columns may need to be added or removed.
Notifying customers
Under bank debit scheme requirements, you are required to notify customers of the change in SEPA Direct Debit provider, any changes to their mandate reference, and confirmation of the old and new CID. The letter should also detail the date the change will occur.
Please note: If you are not joining GoCardless on our Advanced or Pro package and are not using our add-on feature Custom checkout experience and payer notifications add-on feature, you will only know your customers’ mandate references once set up with GoCardless. Customers using our Advanced or Pro package and are using our add-on feature Custom checkout experience and payer notifications add-on feature can set their own preferred custom mandate references. If this is something that you are interested in, please reach out to our Support team with this request.
We will provide you with a notification template that includes the information you must include in the notice.
We recommend that you notify your customers using the same communication channel(s) as you use for other messages (e.g. newsletters, email, post, etc.) to ensure receipt.
Example email template to notify your customers:
Dear [Customer name],
[Merchant name] has moved Direct Debit providers and you will now see [unique mandate reference] and [creditor identifier] on your bank statement moving forward. No action is required from you to continue paying by Direct Debit, and this change will not affect the service you are receiving.
If you have any questions about this change, please don’t hesitate to contact us on [merchant contact details].
Yours sincerely,
[Merchant name]
Migration process
Ahead of the bulk change date, you may wish to create an account in our Sandbox (testing) environment by going to https://manage-sandbox.gocardless.com/signup, and run a test upload of your data to ensure it is formatted correctly.
Once you’ve set up your Sandbox account, please reach out to our Support team to let us know that you have set up the account, along with the email address you set it up with. This allows us to locate your Sandbox account and enable the bulk change tool on it for you.
After we’ve enabled the tool, and you have correctly formatted your customers’ data in your CSV file, you can import it into your Sandbox account following the steps here.
Keeping Creditor Identifier (CID) and CID name (Option 1 & 2)
If you wish to migrate your existing customers over to GoCardless and plan on keeping your own Creditor Identifier (CID) and CID name, you must upload the mandate details using the completed bulk upload CSV.
Changing Creditor Identifier (CID) (Option 3 & 4)
If you wish to migrate your existing customers over to GoCardless and don’t have your own Credit Identifier or don’t plan on getting one, you will need to amend your mandates so that they are removed from their existing Creditor Identifier (the previous provider) and re-added to a GoCardless Creditor Identifier (your new provider).
The first step will be to set up your GoCardless account and setting up your Creditor Identifier, using the shared GoCardless CID.
The next step is to upload the mandate information using the bulk change CSV template and importing it to the dashboard.
When your first payment run is submitted, and amendment is submitted at the same time. This amendment tells the payers bank that their existing mandate is being moved from the existing CID (the previous provider) to the GoCardless CID (your new provider).
Client migration data requirements
IMPORTANT: When completing a SEPA bulk change, it's important to ensure that you complete the following fields correctly in your .csv template; supplying incorrect data can cause mass payment & mandate failures once the details are submitted; see below:
amendment.original_mandate_reference—This reference should be unique per customer and should be the unique identifier attached to the original mandate when it was first created.
amendment.original_creditor_id—This ID should be the current Creditor Identifier against which all of the mandates are currently held. We would expect this field to be the same for all customers.
amendment.original_creditor_name—This should be the current Creditor, aka the name that is currently attached to the CID. It could be your organisation name or the name of your existing provider. If you're not sure, best to check with your existing provider so they can confirm.
| DATA | INFORMATION |
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Customer.given_name & customer.family_name OR customer.company_name |
Enter either customer given name + surname OR company name. If your previous provider exported your customers' full names in a single cell per whole name, rather than splitting between given name and family name, you can use the text to columns function in Excel to separate. Example: Jean & Dupont OR Jean’s Shop |
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customer.email |
A valid email address is required for each customer so that they receive notifications from GoCardless about their payments. If you are planning to send your own notifications to your customers, please speak with your Account Executive.
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Enter the customer's postal address; each line of the address split across the corresponding columns. (Note: columns E, H, I, and J are required fields). Example: Flat 12, 123 Imagination Lane, 7th arrondissement, Paris, 75007, FR |
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customer.phone_number |
(Optional) |
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bank_account.account_holder_name |
This is separate to the 'name' entry fields, since account holder name can differ from the individual (e.g., it could include a middle name) or company name. Example: Jean Dupont |
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bank_account.iban |
IBAN can be entered with, or without spaces; our system accepts either format. Example: FR1420041010050500013M02607 |
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amendment.original_mandate_reference |
Customer's mandate reference
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amendment.original_creditor_id |
This is your Creditor ID (CID) through which your customers' payments are processed. Example: FR123OTHERBANK |
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amendment.original_creditor_name |
Existing Creditor name (CID name) Example: The name on your existing CID |
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bank_account.metadata.bank_custom_key |
(Optional) - Use this field to add a custom reference for your customer if required. This will be assigned to your bank account within your dashboard and is a searchable field. Example: JAM12251 |
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customer.metadata.custom_reference |
(Optional) - Use this field to add a custom reference for your customer if required. This will be assigned to your customer within your dashboard and is a searchable field Example: JEAN441231 |
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mandate.metadata.mandate_custom_key |
(Optional) - Use this field to add a custom reference for your customer if required. This will be assigned to your mandate within your dashboard and is a searchable field. Example: WIL12251 |
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customer.language |
This will determine the language of customer notifications. Example: fr |
Entering local bank details (rather than IBAN)
You can enter your customers' bank details in local format rather than IBAN, if preferred.
To do this, you need to add additional column fields into your downloaded CSV bulk change template.
The additional column fields are:
| COLUMN TITLE | WHAT YOU WOULD ENTER (FR used as example) |
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bank_account.bank_code |
SWIFT / BIC |
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bank_account.branch_code |
Code guichet |
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bank_account.account_number |
Numéro de compte |
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bank_account.country_code |
FR |
These columns can be added after the default columns in the downloaded template. They can be entered in any order, but the titles must match the above.
The columns that are mandatory/optional in each scenario can be found below:
| COLUMN |
Option 1 - keep existing CID, name and mandate reference |
Option 2 - keep existing CID and name, change mandate reference |
Option 3 - keep existing mandate reference, change CID and name |
Option 4 - keep nothing, change CID, name and mandate reference |
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customer.given_name |
Required |
Required | Required | Required |
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customer.family_name |
Required | Required | Required | Required |
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customer.company_name |
Optional | Optional | Optional | Optional |
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customer.email |
Required | Required | Required | Required |
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customer.address_line1 |
Required | Required | Required | Required |
| customer.address_line2 | Optional | Optional | Optional | Optional |
| customer.address_line3 | Optional | Optional | Optional | Optional |
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customer.city |
Required | Required | Required | Required |
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customer.postal_code |
Required | Required | Required | Required |
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customer.country_code |
Required | Required | Required | Required |
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bank_account.account_holder_name |
Required | Required | Required | Required |
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bank_account.iban |
Required | Required | Required | Required |
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amendment.original_mandate_reference |
Not required - to be deleted |
Required |
Not required - to be deleted |
Required |
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amendment.original_creditor_id |
Not required - to be deleted | Not required - to be deleted | Required | Required |
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amendment.original_creditor_name |
Not required - to be deleted | Not required - to be deleted | Required | Required |
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customer.metadata.custom_reference |
Optional | Optional | Optional | Optional |
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customer.language |
Optional | Optional | Optional | Optional |
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mandate.reference |
Required (must have custom mandate references enabled) |
Optional (if used, you must have custom mandate references enabled. If not, column not needed) |
Required (must have custom mandate references enabled) |
Not required |