Working Days

Regarding these time delays, you will see mention of two particular delays that need to be considered, particularly when adding new Direct Debit contracts or ad-hoc payments.

• First Payment Delay: default is 10 working days but can be as low as 5.
• Subsequent Payment Delay: default is 5 working days but can be as low as 3.

If you wish to lower these delays whilst testing the API in our playpen, please raise a support case. Requests to lower delays on a live account should be raised with your Customer Success Manager or sales contact. Note that it may not be possible for us to change your account's configured delays.

We ask our clients that their First Payment Delay is the absolute minimum between creating a customer and contract and collecting the first payment. Payments for existing contracts must be submitted and confirmed by 12pm the Subsequent Payment Delay before the collection date for existing customers with an active Direct Debit.

It is important to note that if a collection date falls on a weekend or a bank holiday, then the delay rules start from the following working day; so for a Saturday or a Sunday, the number of working days to delay should be counted back from the next non-UK bank holiday Monday.

For example

Assuming First Payment Delay = 10 working days and Subsequent Payment Delay = 5 working days, for payments due on Saturday 19/04/2025:

• Payments for existing customers would need to be submitted and confirmed by 12pm on Monday 14/04/2025.
• New customers would need to be confirmed by 12pm on Monday 07/04/2025.

Note: 18/04/2025 (Good Friday) and 21/04/2025 (Easter Monday) are Bank Holidays in the UK and do not count as banking days.

To view the deadlines for lodging collections for new and existing customers for any given collection date, please see our Date Calculator at accesspaysuite.com/date. Alternatively, see the Payment Dates call to get the earliest possible dates for first and subsequent payments.