GoCardless review

GoCardless is a bank-payment platform for businesses that need to collect or send money through bank accounts. It supports one-off payments and recurring Direct Debit collections, plus account-to-account payments to customers, suppliers or other third parties.

For one-off payments, GoCardless says customers can confirm instantly, with funds settling the same or next day. Recurring collections can have their dates or amounts adjusted. The platform also offers Success+ for retrying failed collections and Protect+ for fraud protection. Businesses can customize checkout branding or build a custom checkout through the API.

GoCardless says its platform serves more than 100,000 businesses and supports collections in 30+ countries. It is not a general-purpose consumer budgeting tool: a Reddit user shared a support reply saying GoCardless no longer offers Bank Account Data as a standalone product to new customers. If you want bank feeds rather than payment processing, confirm availability before switching.

Recurring bank collections are the clearest fit. Businesses can adjust collection dates and amounts, and GoCardless provides retries for failed payments rather than leaving every recovery attempt to staff. Its pricing page says the Advanced plan includes Success+, which it says recovers up to 70% of failed payments. That is a stated maximum, not a guaranteed recovery rate.

There is a straightforward way to step up fraud features: Pro includes Advanced features and Protect+, which GoCardless says blocks fraudulent payers and helps challenge fraudulent chargebacks. Custom checkout branding and API-based checkout give businesses options beyond a standard hosted flow. The Standard plan also lists 350+ integrations, which may reduce integration work if your existing software is supported.

The plans are transaction-priced, with fees deducted from payments, rather than listed as fixed monthly subscriptions. That can be easier to assess against actual collection volume. Standard, Advanced and Pro are monthly rolling plans, with no annual billing listed. For businesses with £1m+ annual revenue or bespoke needs, a Custom package offers volume-based discounts and dedicated support, though pricing is not published.

The transaction fees need a volume check, especially if you collect larger Direct Debits. Standard charges 1% + 20p for UK payments, capped at £4; Advanced charges 1.25% + 20p, capped at £5; Pro charges 1.4% + 20p, capped at £5.60. International fees are 2% + 20p, 2.25% + 20p and 2.4% + 20p, respectively. Direct Debits over £2,000 carry an additional 0.3% on every listed plan.

The fee caps apply to UK transactions, but they do not remove that over-£2,000 surcharge. Optional charges can also add up: putting your business name on bank statements is +£50/month, while a fully custom checkout is +£150/month. Custom packages may have setup or monthly costs, and the price and terms for funding through Pipe are not published.

There is no published fixed monthly price for the main plans, so forecast costs from your payment mix before moving. And if you were considering GoCardless for account-data syncing, a Reddit user shared a support response saying that standalone Bank Account Data is no longer offered to new customers.

GoCardless lists three monthly rolling plans, with no annual billing shown. Fees are deducted from payments; there’s no published monthly subscription price for Standard, Advanced or Pro.

• Standard: UK payments cost 1% + 20p, capped at £4; international payments cost 2% + 20p. Direct Debits over £2,000 add 0.3%.
• Advanced: UK rates rise to 1.25% + 20p, capped at £5, and international rates to 2.25% + 20p. That buys Success+, which says it recovers up to 70% of failed payments.
• Pro: UK rates are 1.4% + 20p, capped at £5.60; international rates are 2.4% + 20p. It adds Protect+ to Advanced features.

The percentage fee steps up 0.25 points from Standard to Advanced, then another 0.15 points to Pro. Add-ons include £50/month for your business name on bank statements and £150/month for fully custom checkout. The 0.3% surcharge applies to Direct Debits over £2,000. Custom pricing is available for businesses with £1m+ annual revenue or bespoke needs; setup or monthly costs may apply. There’s no free trial listed.

The published GoCardless material describes payment features and pricing, but doesn’t publish migration steps, data-export formats, contract lock-in terms or exit procedures. It also contains no Reddit posts, so we can’t substantiate a claim about why users leave.

Before switching in, ask GoCardless how existing Direct Debit authorisations are handled, what customer and payment records you can export, and whether you need to update checkout or API integrations. The pricing page lists 350+ integrations on Standard, but doesn’t say whether your current setup can transfer unchanged. Confirm any setup costs too: custom plans may include them.

Before switching out, get written answers on export access, notice periods, handling of scheduled collections and any remaining fees. These details matter more than the headline rate if you collect recurring payments. Compare the cost of moving with the per-transaction fees: GoCardless charges by transaction, and its pricing page doesn’t list a flat-fee option. Treat migration and exit terms as questions to verify, not published guarantees.