Today we’re happy to announce that we have partnered with GoCardless to offer Direct Debit payments, which in turn, helps subscription businesses expand globally and quickly adapt to customers’ changing payment preferences. This release adds support for the following countries and currencies:

MARCH 2019 UPDATE: Since the initial release, we have added three additional regions/schemes: Denmark (Betalingsservice), Sweden (Autogiro), and New Zealand (PaymentsNZ).

So how does this add value to your business?

Aids Global Expansion

When looking to expand into new markets, it’s important to understand who you are selling to and what their preferences are. While automated card payments have been the de facto standard in the US, Direct Debit still outranks cards as the preferred payment method in many countries such as the UK and Australia. 

Offering Direct Debit through GoCardless aids global expansion by giving your business the ability to launch new products and services with optimal payment options in place. Letting new customers decide how they want to pay based on their preferences greatly reduces friction and provides a better user experience.

 As a global payments provider, we know that businesses need to be able to adapt to specific customer preferences in local markets. We’re really excited to be partnering with Maxio’s flexible billing platform to help businesses expanding internationally, accelerate speed to market, and maximize adoption.

Karl Stjernstrom, Head of Global Enterprise Partnerships, GoCardless

Reduces Transaction Costs

Direct Debit is the US equivalent of ACH, which has been trending in popularity over the last year. In fact, we saw ACH revenue processed by Maxio merchants increase by 112% from 2017 to 2018. One underlying driver is that ACH and Direct Debit are attractive alternatives for businesses to offer and promote because of the lower transaction fees.

Direct Debit transactions through GoCardless cost 1% and are capped at €2/transaction which is substantially less than the ~2.9% that most payment processors charge for card payments. The lower costs make ACH and Direct Debit an especially attractive solution for merchants with higher costs products and services where transactions fees become overwhelming.

How It Works

Connecting GoCardless to a Maxio Site follows the same workflow as any other supported payment gateway. Visit your Site’s Settings > Payment Gateways page to get started.

The integration uses single sign-on (OAuth), so if you are already logged into your GoCardless account, you can connect it to Maxio in seconds by clicking ‘Connect Account.’

Once connected, you will have the option to import existing GoCardless customers into your Maxio Site. Doing so will create a customer record and payment profile inside of Maxio.

When Direct Debit is set as the payment method for any given subscription, the paying customer will authorize the withdrawal of funds from their account using a Direct Debit Mandate.

Next Steps

• Check out GoCardless.com to sign up for a free account
• Learn more about configuring and using GoCardless in our help documentation
• If you’re an existing customer, reach out to support@chargify.com if you need any assistance  
• If you’re looking to learn more about Maxio, feel free to schedule a call with a Billing Expert to get your questions answered here.