FR: Integrate with GoCardless to provide a Direct Debit payment option

[nella]

Feature Request: Integrate with GoCardless to provide a Direct Debit payment option inside Square Invoices

https://gocardless.com/

Alternatively, provide native Direct Debit payment options.

Thank you

[Sam_400º]

I’m just gonna put it out there as this has sat for a week without anyone commenting….. 

Square provides the invoicing as an extra free service to support the card processing business - if they then outsourced the money movement why would they offer the invoicing? 


On my invoices I have a standard note with by business bank details if they want to make a bank transfer. 

You can set up repeat payments, or even ask your customers to save their card details within Square & (with their permission) you can charge their card as invoices become due. 

[Goosey]

I agree with @nella. I would love it if Square offered a direct debit system! We're going to be starting up subscriptions soon so that customers (and we) can "set it and forget it." Go Cardless is one of the options that has been recommended to me by a business contact and I am considering it, simply because Square doesn't offer it to its customers currently. I would much prefer to stay with one provider that can meet all of my customer's needs. Thanks!

[nella]

Hi @Sam_400º 

Thank you for your reply.

We use Square Retail Plus for processing all our sales. We offer our clients the option of paying by credit card, bank payments, standing order and direct debits. The last two are important as we offer a subscription service for our services. Our clients have told us they want to pay by direct debit. Xero, is software we could run all our sales through but choose not to because we prefer Square's customer deposits on invoices functionality (something which Xero does not offer). GoCardless integrates with Xero. The benefits to Square would be the more ways a client can pay (without having to leave Square) makes it easier for him and us and therefore makes Square more appealing overall. The money they would not gain in transaction fees would be offset by the the increased appeal of the platform, and therefore an increased customer base. Square does not gain fees from cheque or cash sales but still offer it as a means of processing payments as it enhances the usefulness of the platform and therefore attracts more customers to them.

Thank you.  

[nella]

Unrelated, but maybe the acquisition of Afterpay (known as Clearpay in the UK) could lead to native direct debit functionality. 

https://squareup.com/gb/en/press/square-announces-plans-to-acquire-afterpay 

[lashesnearme]

Well said. 

The lack of direct debit functionality will push businesses to sign up with other providers. when they realise that those providers can *also* handle the services they receive from square, well now theres a new option for that all in one merchant system they wanted from square. 

If Square introduces direct debit services, I hope they take into account that businesses seeking this functionality often have a specific purpose for it. Personally, I’m not interested in giving customers yet another way to pay for my regular products or services.

My priority is making sure direct debit is the *only* option for our plans and subscriptions.

With how easily bank cards can be frozen or canceled these days, I wouldn’t even consider offering subscriptions if I had to allow card payments for the recurring fees. The risk of interruptions or losses during the membership period is too high comparative to the added value typical memberships providing to people from the outset. 

As square already offers ways to set up recurring charges to debit or credit cards, i hope they will make DD a standalone feature like invoicing. Any option for recurring charges that allows a payee to bypass direct debit in favour of entering their card details would render it useless for businesses like mine.