‎Direct Debit

‎Direct Debit is a simple way for you to collect regular or occasional payments from your customers.‎

The Mastercard Payment Gateway Services Direct Debit Service can be used for both AUDDIS and AUDDIS Paperless Direct Debits. If you are currently using a non-AUDDIS system, Mastercard Payment Gateway Services can assist you in the transfer of existing Direct Debit Instructions to AUDDIS.‎

 Validating a Direct Debit Instruction

The Mastercard Payment Gateway Services Direct Debit Service incorporates a comprehensive, BACS approved, validity checking service. Every Direct Debit Instruction (DDI) is checked to verify that the customer’s sort code and account number are valid and can be used for Direct Debits. This check takes place in real time, ensuring that any data entry errors can be identified and rectified immediately.

Processing a DDI

Once the DDI details have been validated, the next stage is for it to be set up against your customers bank account. Each working day, Mastercard Payment Gateway Services collate all the DDIs which require setting up and submit them to BACS. This process is called settlement. BACS then liaise with your customers bank to set up the DDI against the account. This processing of the instruction takes five working days from the time of submittal.

Taking Payments

Payments can be taken from the instruction once it has been set up on your customer’s account. The process of taking a Direct Debit payment is called a drawdown.

Using the Mastercard Payment Gateway Services solution, you have the option to either generate and submit each individual drawdown to the DPG or the DPG can generate these automatically and email the results to you. Further information about the automated drawdown Service is available here.

Whichever generation mechanism you choose, the settlement process for drawdowns is the same. Like the DDIs, all drawdowns are batched by the DPG each working day and are submitted to BACS for processing. This process takes three working days.

Refunds

The Mastercard Payment Gateway Services solution can also be used to perform refunds against existing DDIs if required.

Cancellations

The Direct Debit Guarantee enables your customer to cancel their DDI by contacting their bank or building society directly. Using the Mastercard Payment Gateway Services Service, information about these cancellation advice can be automatically collected by the DPG on your behalf if required. These are then used to update our records and can be emailed to you.

If you wish to cancel a DDI – either because the customer has contacted you directly, or it has expired on your system – this can also be done through the DPG. A cancellation of a DDI is called a revoke on the DPG. The settlement process for revokes is the same as for the DDIs themselves.

Drawdowns may be cancelled before settlement, if required. 

Requirements

Before you can go live with this service, you will need:

• an account with Mastercard Payment Gateway Services configured for this service
• to be the holder of an AUDDIS Direct Debit Originator’s Identification Number (OIN)
• to have completed any accreditation required by your Sponsoring Bank
• the ability to send XML transactions to our servers

Mastercard Payment Gateway Services can also collect on your behalf, information about any changes to your setups. If you wish to use this feature, you will also need:

• to complete section 6 of your BACSTEL-IP application form (which is submitted to your Sponsoring Bank), naming Mastercard Payment Gateway Services as your Bureau.
• an email address for the DPG to send the DDI updates to

Your Sponsoring Bank may require you to complete accreditation testing with them before the service can be set live.

Transaction Processing Models

The Mastercard Payment Gateway Services Direct Debit Service has the flexibility to allow DDIs to be set up in two different ways.

• One Stage Processing – the DDI is validated and then sent to BACS. If you are using this model, you will only need to contact the Mastercard Payment Gateway Services servers once to set up a DDI.
• Two Stage Processing – the DDI is validated but is not sent to BACS until you are ready to proceed. If you are using this model, you will need to contact the Mastercard Payment Gateway Services servers twice – once for validation and again to confirm.

Each DDI can be processed in the model of your choosing – there are no restrictions, additional service charges or extra account configurations required.

Each time a DDI is submitted to the DPG, it contains the information that determines the model to be used for that transaction. This ensures you have the flexibility to mix and match models as required on an individual transaction basis.

In both models, the customer details are validated, and the result returned to you in real time. The difference between the models lies in the submission of the DDI to BACS.

One Stage Processing

The One Stage model validates the customer details and activates the instruction without additional effort on your part. The details are submitted to BACS the next working day. BACS then pass the details to your Sponsoring Bank and the customer’s bank. The customer’s bank set up the DDI.

Using the One Stage process, the start date of the DDI is five days after submission to the DPG.

This model is useful if you do not require the customer to return a signed DDI – for example if you are using the AUDDIS PAPERLESS scheme.

Transaction Type	Effect	Uses
Setup	Sets up a DDI	Validates the DDI detail and submits it to BACS for setup against the customer’s account.

 

Two Stage Processing

The Two Stage model also validates the customer details in real time but does not activate the instruction. This initial stage is performed using a preset up. The instruction is activated once the second stage – the confirm has been received.

Transaction Type	Effect	Uses
Preset up	Validates DDi	Validates the DDI detail only. The DDI is not sent to BACS to be set up against the account until a valid confirm is received.
Confirm	Completes the two stage process	Initiates the submission of a successful preset up to BACS, where it is set up against the customer’s account

This allows you to delay the full setup of the instruction until up to a maximum of twenty eight days after the preset up. This can be useful if you are waiting for a signed DDI from your customer before completing the setup process.

Once the confirm has been received, the details are submitted to BACS the next working day.

Using the Two Stage process, the start date of the DDI is five days after submission of the confirm to the DPG. 

Transferring Existing DDIs to Mastercard Payment Gateway Services

If you have existing AUDDIS or AUDDIS PAPERLESS DDIs which you wish to make payments on through Mastercard Payment Gateway Services, these DDIs can be transferred to your Mastercard Payment Gateway Services account. As the DDI is already set up at BACS, they only require validation. Once transferred they can be used to submit drawdowns immediately, as the start date is the current date. The One Stage process should be used when transferring existing DDIs.

Converting DDIs to AUDDIS

Mastercard Payment Gateway Services are also able to assist in converting existing non-AUDDIS DDIs to AUDDIS. The converted DDIs are validated and sent to BACS for processing – this process takes five days. The One Stage process should be used when converting existing DDIs.

When converting a DDI, the start date is five days after submission to the DPG.

As the conversion to AUDDIS may require additional configuration of your OIN, please contact your Sponsoring Bank prior to submission of the DDIs to Mastercard Payment Gateway Services. Additional information about this process is available in the Originator’s Guide and Rules.

Drawdowns

Drawdowns can be submitted to DPG on or after the start date of any valid DDI. As the processing of drawdowns takes three days, the due date – the date the money will be transferred – must be a minimum of three days ahead of submission to the DPG.

Transaction Type	Effect	Uses
Drawdown	Takes payment	Transfers funds for a valid DDI from the customer’s account.

The Mastercard Payment Gateway Services will automatically calculate whether the drawdown is the first drawdown on a DDI or a later drawdown. If you wish a particular drawdown to be flagged in a different fashion, this can be done by using transaction codes.

Revoking DDIs

If you wish to cancel a DDI, this can be done by submitting a revoke to the DPG.

Transaction Type	Effect	Uses
Revoke	Cancels DDI	Cancels the DDI on both the customer’s account and the DPG.

Situations in which this could be implemented include:

• Your customer has informed you that they wish to cancel the DDI, but has not informed their bank.
• You have taken the agreed number of payments from the customer, and will no longer require the DDI.
• You collect the DDI cancellation information direct from your bank and wish to update the DPG with these cancellations.

Cancelling a Drawdown

If you wish to cancel a drawdown prior to settlement, this can be done by submitting a cancel to the DPG.

Transaction Type	Effect	Uses
Cancel	Cancels drawdown	Prevents an unsettled drawdown from being sent to BACS for processing.

 

Performing Transactions

Each transaction requires specific information to be provided. In addition to those listed, each requires a client and password – these are security details which identify your account.

Performing the Initial Validation

For both one and two stage setups, these details need to be collected from the customer:

• the sort-code of the customer’s bank
• the customer’s account number
• the name the account is held under

In addition, these details are required:

• the transaction method – either setup or preset up
• the reference number of the DDI

When transferring or converting an existing DDI, the one stage setup should be used. In these cases, in addition to the information above, an extra flag is used to indicate whether the DDI is a conversion or a transfer. Please refer to the Developers Guide for full details.

Completing a Two Stage setup

To complete the processing of a Two Stage DDI, a confirm is needed. This informs Mastercard Payment Gateway Services that you wish the DDI to be set up on the customer’s bank account.

To confirm a DDI, information from the result of the original preset up is required, in addition to the transaction method:

• the transaction method – confirm
•  the Mastercard Payment Gateway Services reference number of the preset up
• the reference number of the DDI

Taking Payments

Once a DDI start date has passed, payments can be taken from the DDI. To submit a drawdown, the following information should be supplied:

• the amount – the value to be debited from the account.
• the transaction method – drawdown
• the Mastercard Payment Gateway Services reference of the setup or confirmed preset up
• the drawdown reference number – to allow you to distinguish the drawdown on the Reporting System. This reference may be the same as the DDI reference number and is not sent to BACS.

Each drawdown will be processed by BACS from the customer’s account three working days after it is submitted to Mastercard Payment Gateway Services. If you wish to submit drawdowns in advance, this can be done by specifying the due date along with the transaction.

A transaction code may also be presented for the drawdown if required.

Revoking a DDI

To revoke an existing DDI, the following fields are required:

• the Mastercard Payment Gateway Services reference of the setup or confirmed preset up
• the transaction method – revoke
• your DDI reference number 

Cancelling a Drawdown

To cancel an unsettled drawdown, the following fields are required:

• the Mastercard Payment Gateway Services reference of the drawdown
• the transaction method – cancel

Response Codes

There are two basic Response types for all transactions.

• Acknowledgements
• Errors

Examples of both response types are available in the Developers Guide.

Acknowledgement

An acknowledgement response indicates that the transaction has been successfully entered into the DPG and will be sent to BACS for processing. This does not guarantee that the transaction will be successfully processed by BACS however. The Direct Debit Scheme provides excellent customer protection by allowing both the DDI and drawdowns to be queried or cancelled by the customer. If BACS are unable to process the transaction for whatever reason, they will notify you directly.

If section 6 of your BACSTEL-IP application form has been completed and submitted to your Sponsoring Bank, Mastercard Payment Gateway Services will receive notifications of any rejections, cancellations and failures of your DDIs directly from BACS. These will be used to update our records to prevent further drawdowns being sent to your bank on those setups. In addition, these will be mailed to an email address of your choosing, in an attachment of standard CSV format to allow you to automatically update your own systems. Further details about the format of the CSV file are available in the Developers Guide, available here.

Errors

A complete list of Response Codes for this service is available here. The Support Centre also contains extensive examples for most error codes. Illustrations are given to demonstrate how they would appear in both Reporting and an XML Response. Suggestions are also given to help you prevent them from occurring.

Reporting

The Direct Debit transactions are detailed in the Direct Debit section of the Mastercard Payment Gateway Services Reporting system. There are six main pages:

• For DDIs:

o    Setup Summary – gives a summary of the DDIs

o    Setup List – shows specific details of the DDIs

o    Setup Details – shows full details of each DDI

• For drawdowns:

o    Drawdown Summary – gives a summary of the drawdowns

o    Drawdown List – shows specific details of the drawdowns

o    Drawdown Details – shows full details of each drawdown