Collecting fees by direct debit
It is the difference between collecting 95% of the fees and collecting 60%. And it demands three things a spreadsheet does not give you: a signed mandate, a file the bank accepts and keeping track of the returns.
The mandate: without it there is no direct debit
The mandate is the signed authorisation from the person for you to charge their account. It is not a formality: it is what protects you if somebody disputes the charge, and without it the collection is improper.
It has to contain, as a minimum:
- A unique reference for the mandate, which then travels with every debit.
- Who is collecting: your name, your address and your creditor identifier.
- Who is paying: name, address and IBAN.
- Whether it is a recurring or a one-off collection.
- The date and signature of the person.
The creditor identifier
It is a code of its own, different from your NIF, which you request from your bank. Without it you cannot present batches. You ask for it once and it lasts for ever.
The mandate is kept for as long as the relationship lasts and, afterwards, for as long as is needed to be able to prove it. A mandate that has gone 36 months without being used expires and the creditor has to cancel it: if someone stops paying for three years and comes back, a new one has to be signed. The 36 months are counted from the last debit presented, even if it was rejected or returned.
The file the bank accepts
Direct debits are not sent one by one: they are grouped into a batch and a single file is handed over in XML pain.008 format, which is the European standard for direct debits.
Inside goes the header with your details and your creditor identifier, and then one debit for each item, with the IBAN, the amount, the description and the mandate reference.
There are two schemes and it is worth knowing which one you use:
| Scheme | Who it is for | The debtor's refund window |
|---|---|---|
| CORE | The usual one. Works for private individuals and for companies | 8 weeks without giving a reason, and 13 months if the debit was not authorised |
| B2B | Only if the debtor is not a consumer, and both banks have to be signed up: the scheme is voluntary and not all of them offer it. The debtor also confirms the mandate with their own bank | No refund without a reason: the debtor does not have that right |
For membership fees the scheme is CORE, in practically every case. And that eight-week window is the one to bear in mind: a debit collected in January can come back in March.
When the batch has to be presented
The batch is handed to the bank ahead of the date you want it charged on. The European Payments Council's rulebook sets the deadline between banks: the debtor's bank has to receive the debit at least one interbank business day before the collection date — written D-1 — and since November 2016 it has been the same for the first debit as for recurring ones. Careful, though: that is the deadline between banks. Yours will ask you for the batch earlier, and each one sets its own cut-off time. The practical rule is still to present it several business days ahead and to ask your bank what its cut-off is.
And there is one obligation people forget: telling the debtor before the charge. The same rulebook requires the amount and the date to be notified at least 14 calendar days in advance, unless you have agreed another period. For recurring fees of the same amount it is enough to announce it once, at the start, with the schedule of charges.
It is not just about complying: a member who has been told does not return the debit out of the blue.
Returns: the part that really makes work
There always are. And the point is not to avoid them, it is to find out about them: the bank returns a file of unpaid items, and if nobody looks at it, the member goes on showing as paid up for months.
The commonest reasons:
- Insufficient funds. It is tried again, and it usually resolves itself.
- Account closed or wrong IBAN. You have to ask for the new details: retrying is no use at all.
- Returned by the debtor within the eight weeks. It is worth phoning before charging again.
- No mandate. There is no possible retry here: the authorisation is missing.
What you have to have set up is the whole circuit: import the returns file, mark each direct debit, and have the member with two unpaid items show up flagged before the general meeting, not after.
How this is handled in Cairos
The three steps, without leaving the program:
- Each member has their mandate with its reference, their IBAN and the date they signed it.
- The period's batch is generated with its debits, and out comes the pain.008 file ready for the bank, with the creditor identifier and the IBANs without spaces.
- When the bank returns unpaid items, the file is imported and each direct debit is left in its own state, with its reason.
And it works the same for an association's membership fees, a club's registration fees or an academy's monthly payments: it is the same mechanism.
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Frequently asked questions
Collecting properly is half of running an entity
And the other half is knowing who has not paid before somebody asks at the general meeting.
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