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Stripe brings Bacs Direct Debits online alongside cards and digital wallets

Addition of Bacs Direct Debits makes Stripe the first self-serve unified payments platform for UK merchants * Stripe providing the platform for increased prominence of SaaS businesses

Stripe, a global technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the internet, can today announce it has worked with Bacs Direct Debits to bring the popular 50-year-old payment method online alongside card payments, digital wallets and more.

With over 4 billion payments made via Direct Debits annually, today’s announcement means businesses can now easily accept one of the UK’s most trusted payment methods entirely online, and in the same platform as their card and digital wallet payments.

Users can build Direct Debits into their own payment flows, or by using Stripe Checkout, they can skip over design requirements and the lengthy approval process of building their own Direct Debits payment form, and be set up to accept payments in minutes.

Businesses can also choose to customise their Direct Debits integration by putting their own brand on payment pages, statements and emails to customers.

Matt Henderson, Stripe’s EMEA Business Lead, said: “Bacs is something of a heritage brand, we all recognise the paper forms you fill out to set up the mandate. It’s rightly trusted, but can feel a bit old fashioned. We’re pleased to be able to bring Bacs Direct Debits completely online alongside newer payment methods like Apple Pay or Alipay.”

“Recurring revenue businesses are going to play an important role in the global economic recovery. We want to make sure Stripe can help these businesses protect and grow their revenues. The ability to collect Bacs payments will help increase conversion, reduce cost, and minimise churn.”

Large businesses like Freshbooks plan to use the new Direct Debits offering to power their upcoming launch into the UK market.

With over £100m of charity donations made by Direct Debits in 2019, nonprofits raising via platforms like Chuffed can now use Stripe to enable Direct Debits for recurring donations online.

Prashan Paramanathan, CEO of Chuffed says: “Recurring payments are particularly important for charitable causes that need to turn moments of emotional connection into long-term sustained change. Now that charities can collect Direct Debits online alongside card payments, they generate more long-term funding for their causes.”

Fast growing start-ups like Samsara and Yorlet are using Direct Debits to accept recurring payments from businesses and consumers.

Chloe Hill, VP Finance at Samsara says: “Stripe’s Bacs product allows us to operate globally and provide customers in the UK with a secure and trusted payment method. Developer-friendly documentation and great support made the rollout quick and easy.” Will Stenhouse, Co-founder of Yorlet, added: “We help property managers automate their rent collection—so only accepting card payments is a non-starter. Using Stripe’s Bacs Direct Debits we can automatically collect rent while reducing the payment cost.”

Author

  • Editorial Director of the The Fintech Times

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