Direct Debit

The Direct Debit Process

Throughout the development of our API we have sought to simplify the Direct Debit process as much as possible, however due to the technical nature of Direct Debits it is helpful to understand the general data flow and the reasons for certain time delays.

For additional information about the time delays required when setting up new Direct Debit contracts or ad-hoc collections, please see Working Days.

  1. After creating a Customer record on our system, you will need to assign a schedule to them. The schedule can take a number of forms:

    • A schedule that can collect ad-hoc payments as and when you request them via the API. There will usually be date restrictions in place.
    • A schedule where you ask us to collect regular amounts on regular dates in a month, or days in a week as per your requirements.
    • A schedule where a pre-determined amount is taken on regular dates in a month, or days in a week as per your instructions.
    • A schedule where the collection amounts and or dates are fixed.

    Access PaySuite creates the schedules as part of the set-up process and the available schedules can be listed using the schedules call.

  2. As soon as a schedule is applied to a customer record, we send an instruction to BACS to create the Direct Debit instruction. The date for the first payment required should be set at least your SUN's configured First Payment Delay after the schedule creation date.

  3. Ad-hoc payments need to be lodged onto DDCMS at least your SUN's configured Subsequent Payment Delay before the collection date.

  4. Around three working days before the collection date, we submit the payments to BACS for collection. Payments cannot be changed after submission has occurred.

  5. The final status of the payment records can be enquired upon 3 working days following the collection date. Where a payment collection date falls on a weekend or on a UK bank holiday, the collection date is automatically moved to the next working day, and the developer will need to take this into account. For example, a payment scheduled on Saturday 1st June 2013 will be collected on Monday 3rd June 2013, and payment statuses will be available from Thursday 6th June 2013.