GoCardless launches in France

Since 2011 we've been helping UK companies improve the way they collect recurring payments. Today we're very excited to announce that we're launching in France and Belgium to do the same, and will be launching in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands soon.

Direct Debit offers French and Belgian businesses lower failure rates, lower transaction fees and increased flexibility. By putting the company in control of when payments are taken it also improves cash-flow and drastically reduces the time spent chasing late payments. However, just like in the UK, Direct Debit is difficult to access, hard to use, and full of hidden fees. We're fixing that:

• Access to Direct Debit: in Europe it can take months to get started, with a lot of paperwork and setup fees. It takes a couple of days with GoCardless and we take care of setting you up on the SEPA Direct Debit scheme (for free).

• Manual processes: companies are spending hours each week setting up customers, creating and exchanging files with their bank or provider, and manually reconciling the payments that succeeded or failed. We automate everything, whether you use our API or our online dashboards.

• Hidden fees: we don't think anyone should pay €16 each time a payment fails, so we only charge on successful transactions - nothing else.

We've already launched with 1001menus, who now automate their Direct Debit collections, and The French Talents, who no longer need to chase late payments via bank transfers and cheques. We've also been covered in the national and business press: Le Figaro, Les Echos, Challenges, La Tribune, Journal du Net and l'AGEFI have all written about us.

To learn more, visit our French or English website.