Collecting payments

We offer various solutions for receiving payments by direct debit authorisation. You can choose between automatic collection via Euro direct debit or digital direct debit authorisation.  

Automatic collection

You can choose between Standard Euro direct debit or Business Euro direct debit. This allows you to collect payments from your private or business customers. For Standard Euro direct debit and Business Euro direct debit, you can register authorisations manually or digitally. 

Read how to create direct debit files

• Standard Euro Direct Debit
  Standard Euro Direct Debit is a transfer from your current account whereby the recipient sends the payment order. The authorisation is arranged between the payer and the payee on paper or via a digital Direct Debit Authorisation.
• Business Euro Direct Debit
  Business Euro Direct Debit is a SEPA direct debit product for business purposes. Business Euro Direct Debit differs from Standard Euro Direct Debit on one aspect: the debtor explicitly waives their right of reversal. For this reason, only businesses can be debited using this product. To prevent abuse, the authorisation is registered with the debit bank. The debit bank checks whether there is a valid authorisation for each direct debit.

Direct debit regulations

Types of authorisation 

The Euro direct debit has a recurring direct debit and a one-off direct debit.

Changing details in an authorisation

When certain details change, you must state the old and new details in accordance with the Implementation Guidelines. This applies to changes in:

• Collector ID
• Authorisation reference
• Debtor's IBAN 

Batch format

We accept the XML format (PAIN008.001.02) as established by the Dutch Payments Association. The most important rules are:

• A batch may contain a maximum of 100,000 items. 
• A file may consist of multiple batches. It is not permitted/possible to combine multiple direct debit variations, such as one-off and recurring, in a single batch or Payment Information block.
• It is possible to combine multiple different batches as a multibatch in a single file. 

The formats for Standard Euro Direct Debit and Business Euro Direct Debit have minor differences in content.

Read more about our SEPA direct debit and payment files here.

Delivery and processing times

View all delivery and processing times for different payments here.

Cancellation of direct debits  

You can withdraw items from a signed Euro direct debit batch via our Customer Service department until 10 a.m. on the working day before the processing date. We process these requests on a best-effort basis. For postal cancellations of submitted SEPA direct debit batches, please use the Postal Cancellations form.  

Reversing and rejecting orders  

A Euro direct debit can be rejected by the debtor or the debtor's bank before settlement. After settlement, the direct debit can be reversed. The reason code shows you the reason for the rejection or reversal.  

Posting orders to the current account  

We always credit the entire batch on the settlement date and debit the rejected items on the settlement date. Reversed direct debits are posted on the day of receipt. The difference between rejected postings and reversals is shown with a specific posting code or transaction code.

Read more on Formats and examples

Interest or cost compensation for chargebacks

The value date of a chargeback must always be the same as the settlement date for a debtor. The debit bank may charge the credit bank interest compensation for this. In addition, a bank may charge administration costs in certain situations. This is particularly common with foreign banks. No administration costs are charged within the Netherlands. As the credit bank, we pass on the interest and/or costs paid to the collector. The interest or costs are booked separately from the original transaction. 

Integrity marker

When importing each batch, we calculate an integrity marker, also known as a hash. The marker is comparable to the sum of account numbers, which SEPA does not use. If your financial system calculates the same value, you can be sure that the batch has not been modified after export from the financial system and before import into BNG Betalingsverkeer. 

We use the SHA256 value as default. You can perform the check based on an optical comparison or you can choose to make it mandatory to enter the last five digits in BNG Payment Transactions. We will then perform the check automatically.  

Direct delivery to Worldline

It is possible to deliver standard SEPA direct debits directly to Worldline via Corporate Payments Services. This mainly concerns direct debits that are processed via service agencies. You must enter into an additional agreement for this service.  

Switching service  

The Dutch switching service applies to Euro direct debits. Euro direct debits are automatically transferred to the new bank within thirteen months. When you import a direct debit batch into our system, we immediately check and report whether there are any IBANs in the switching service. You can also request or download an overview of all IBANs in the Transfer Service at a later time (e.g. once a week or once a month). You can then use this information to update your own records.      

Measures that protect consumers

If you want to be sure that a collector does not collect any money, you have the option of blocking an account completely or partially for a specific collector. Consumers can also partially open an account. This means that the consumer explicitly specifies all collectors who are allowed to collect from the account. Additional restrictions can be specified in this approval list, such as collection frequency, maximum amount, collector IDs and characteristic authorisations. The approval list is not actively promoted by banks and collectors, and is therefore used by few consumers.  

If a direct debit is rejected by a measure that protects consumers, this is reported under reason code SL01. We recommend contacting the consumer.

Digital direct debit authorisation

You can also issue the direct debit authorisation digitally in the online banking environment, similar to iDEAL. The big advantage is that you can complete the authorisation entirely digitally and process it immediately in your own administration. The digital authorisation must meet a number of conditions

1.    Transparency: the debtor must clearly understand that he is issuing an authorisation and what it is for

2.    Completeness: the authorisation must comply with the SEPA guidelines

3.    Acceptable method of signing: the method of signing must be sufficiently secure and acceptable to both the debtor and the creditor.

4.    Easy withdrawal option: the debtor must be able to easily withdraw the authorisation digitally or, for example, via telephone customer service.  

Right of chargeback

For all forms of digital direct debit authorisation, with the exception of the business-to-business variant, the debtor has the right to a chargeback 56 days after the debit date. The debtor does not need to give a reason for this.

Unusual Direct Debit Notification (MOI)  

The debtor can reverse the payment up to 13 months after the debit date if no valid authorisation has been issued. To do so, you can submit an Unjustified Direct Debit Notification. The debit bank only accepts valid paper authorisations or valid authorisations issued via the digital direct debit authorisation banking product. The debit bank cannot verify the validity of any other variants.  

If you have any questions or would like more information about the Digital Direct Debit Authorisation product, please contact our Customer Service.

Read here how to use digital direct debit authorisation. 

Frequently asked questions 

What do the error codes mean in a SEPA Direct Debit?