End the Stress of Late Payments With One Simple Change

Are your customers paying on time? Or are you stuck chasing them, convinced it’s just the cost of business? Ever struggle with failed payments from expired cards?

Make one smart move to remove the hassle of late payments: switch to Direct Debit for your payment collection with this savvy provider. And you’ll never have to wonder where your money is. Find five key reasons why it’s worth it.

If you are experiencing the stress of late payments, you’re not alone.

Unfortunately, the UK has a culture of late payments, with a staggering 70% of businesses having recurring issues with getting their invoices paid on time. It can be one of the biggest pain points for any small business, fueling stress and cash flow problems, awkward conversations with customers and a significant time cost.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. You can make one simple change to eliminate the stresses of getting paid late: switch your payment collection method to Direct Debit with GoCardless. And no, you don’t need to be a large business with hefty revenue or even need to have a dedicated business bank account to qualify. This is open to small businesses and entrepreneurs too – you can even use a personal account to collect Direct Debit from your customers.

5 reasons why you should be collecting Direct Debit with GoCardless

Many of us see “Direct Debit” and think of household bills - things like water, electricity, or council tax. But Direct Debit is well-suited to all sorts of recurring and one-off payments. Direct Debit removes the need for customers to view, approve, and action any invoices you send, so you don’t need to wait around for clients to authorise payment upon receipt of a new bill – the payment is made automatically.

Direct Debit has great benefits for your business:

1. Predictable cash flow

Late payments make cash flow unpredictable, stunting business growth, causing significant stress for owners, and putting a strain on business operations.

GoCardless hands you control of when you get paid. Automate, and payments are collected as soon as they’re due, giving you predictable cash flow for peace of mind and business planning.

2. Save time on late payment admin

Dealing with late payments is exceptionally time-consuming, with many hours spent accounting for missed payments, on phone calls, and emails chasing the payments.Research studies highlight that the average small business in the UK spends 30 hours a month chasing late payments. However, thanks to automated on-time payment collection, GoCardless customers only spend 2.6 hours each month dealing with late or failed payments - that works out as 90% less time.

3. Cheaper than card payments

Credit card transaction fees can be over 3x more expensive than GoCardless. On average, credit card fees range between 1.5% and 3%, but how much you'll pay will depend on your card network and specific fee structure.

Not only is GoCardless cheaper, but we also provide pricing transparency. Accepting a £500 payment by credit or debit card will cost a merchant between £7.50 and £15. However, with GoCardless that same transaction costs just £4.80.

4. Admin automation reduces manual processes

Regular financial admin takes up a lot of time too. However, GoCardless provides one easy-to-use dashboard and integrates with cloud-based accounting systems (like Xero, Quickbooks, Sage and many more) to reduce manual processes and automate payment collection and bank reconciliation. The result is that businesses using Direct Debit through GoCardless spend 59% less time managing their payment admin.

5. Your customers will love us too

Direct Debit isn’t just great for your business - your customers will love it too. For them, GoCardless Direct Debit is:

• Simple - Setting up payment details only takes two minutes for customers to complete online.

• Transparent - Customers will always be notified by email when an invoice payment is going to be collected.

• Efficient - No more customers writing out and posting cheques, logging in to online banking or forgetting to pay.

And their payments are always protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee if any funds are ever taken in error, so they can have complete peace of mind.

How much does GoCardless cost?

We like to keep our pricing fair and transparent. That means no setup costs and no hidden fees. You can learn more on the GoCardless pricing page.

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from using Direct Debit with GoCardless. From one-person window cleaning companies, all the way up to global SaaS businesses. We’re proud to count more than 85,000 businesses around the world as our customers.