Recurring transactions: SEPA & credit card via one platform

In recent years many changes occured in mandates and digital signatures, both in one-off as in recurring transactions. The deployment of SEPA (Single Euro Payments Ares) achieved uniformity in the European policy: all SEPA countries have the same directives as far as the payment market is concerned. However, in each country each bank applies its own standards.

1-cent transactions

This resulted in the disappearance of the ‘old-fashioned’ Dutch way of handling mandates. The red-green-yellow-red card has become obsolete and nowadays companies ask their customers to pay for a 1-cent transaction using iDeal. In doing so the company will obtain the bank account number and subsequently can charge for e.g. a monthly sports subscription fee. The judge ruled, however, such a process to be invalid, because the transaction does not mention the mandate in any way. A transaction must always revert to a contract in which the conditions of the mandate are laid down.

Digital mandates

Therefore, the e-mandate offers a solution. In a digital mandate your customers place their signature online. And while using the normal iDEAL workflow, the digital mandate is provided with a mandate number immediately after the first transaction of 0 cents. This number, which refers to a mandate contract, is digitally stored by banks as a burden of proof. All direct debits that follow will always have the same mandate number. This is an efficient process, because it is real time, processed directly and there is no paper (mandate cart or pdf) hassle.

PayByLink and Twikey

PayByLink can also offer you a lot of convenience for online mandates. To use an e-mandate, you will need a contract with a mandate service provider (MSP) and a SEPA mandate contract with your bank. PayByLink has a partnership with mandate service provider Twikey and this makes things easy for you. Based on your contract Twikey will collaborate with your bank and will take care of entire digital mandate processing. All links necessary to send out mandates are integrated into the PayByLink platform. Using neat templates the links can be sent by mail, sms and/or can be used immediately online. Via PayBylink, the mandates can be realised as well as the subsequent recurring transactions for subsciptions, operating costs and more!

SEPA mandates and credit cards in the same PayByLink platform

Many European customers who do not want to issue a bank mandate as well as customers from outside Europe prefer to use their credit cards for recurring transactions. Normally a company would need separate checkout functionality (from a PSP) including additional features. PayByLink also offers a solution through one single link. The first credit card transaction also is a kind of mandate: during the first transaction the Payment Service Provider links the customer number to the card number and this information is stored at the payment service provider. So, if you want to charge the first installment you can upload the actual transaction on the PayByLink platform using the customer number rather than the card number. PayByLink will pass this info on to the payment service provider. This means less hassle for you.

In conclusion: if you wish to process recurring transactions using a bank or credit card mandate, PayByLink acts as a single point of contact to both the mandate service provider and the payment service provider and you only need one link. To keep track of all mandates and transactions you only need to monitor one dashboard. We cannot make it easier to be on top of all your own transactions.