When starting up should you only take go cardless payments ?

[Cleanco]

If a customer can’t be trusted to make a simple bank transfer then they aren’t worth having in my book. I can see why the bigger company’s use DD collection services due to admin etc managing 1000’s of customers a day. I consider myself a small outfit dealing with around 200 customers a week which a good few pay on the day. If I was to pay a company to collect all my work it would cost me the best part of a grand a year which I’d rather have in my pocket. If I was going to start all over again though and was adamant on using one then I’d deffo do it from the beginning as once your established then it would be a right pita to convert everybody over and not something that can be done overnight. 

 

[Iron Giant]

If a customer can’t be trusted to make a simple bank transfer then they aren’t worth having in my book.

It's not case of not been trusted, it's the simple case of people having a busy work and home life and forgetting to get everything done, I am sure if dd wasn't around  lot of us would miss the paying the odd bill, my memory is quite bad so I can appreciate how easy it is to forget things, plus I am not scrolling through my bank payments seeing who has or hasn't and then having to send reminders, I come after work and switch off as the money is in the bank every week without fail. ?

 

[Chris33]

Sometimes I offer to debit on a set day. A fact of gocardless that only users will really know about, is that you can set the debit date to ANY date after 5 or so days in the future. 

Now if you have a person who is good to pay but bad with cash flow, get their pay date and arrange to debit on that day. I do this for a few and they never ever bounce. 

It's a great platform for payment and have several hundred using it, and apart from going WFP this is the second best thing I ever done biz wise. It's that good. 

 

[Cleanco]

It's not case of not been trusted, it's the simple case of people having a busy work and home life and forgetting to get everything done, I am sure if dd wasn't around  lot of us would miss the paying the odd bill, my memory is quite bad so I can appreciate how easy it is to forget things, plus I am not scrolling through my bank payments seeing who has or hasn't and then having to send reminders, I come after work and switch off as the money is in the bank every week without fail. ?

The best part of a grand for sending a few reminders out every now and again is good money and better in my pocket than someone else’s. Not only that but just the same as you I have a good turnover of money every week without fail. It maybe a little up some weeks and a little down on others but I’m very comfortable and certainly don’t hang on every payment coming through immediately. 

 

[Dave B]

I don't pay 2% + 20p per transaction and never have, the charges are 1%  per transaction capped at 20p, it would cost you around £40 each month to collect 4k a month via GC

It's 2% nowadays for new sign ups but we keep the 1% tariff as signed up when that was the deal.

 

[Chris34]

The best part of a grand for sending a few reminders out every now and again is good money and better in my pocket than someone else’s. Not only that but just the same as you I have a good turnover of money every week without fail. It maybe a little up some weeks and a little down on others but I’m very comfortable and certainly don’t hang on every payment coming through immediately. 

If your turnover is £100,000 then £1k is nothing and is well worth the time it would save you.

 

[Chris34]

It's 2% nowadays for new sign ups but we keep the 1% tariff as signed up when that was the deal.

It's still 1%

https://gocardless.com/pricing/

 

[Dave B]

That's good as my mate signed up last year and pays 2%

Got a couple of friends who pay that 

1 pence for every pound collected is well worth it.

Got most of my round on it now.

Just the softwashing and pressure washing that pays online pretty much now.

 

[Pjj]

We are a very well established company and I don’t use go cardless , I think some will be put off and others might be ok with it , it’s your choice in the end but I think your growth will be slower if you only take on people who sign up to it . 

 

[Chris34]

That's good as my mate signed up last year and pays 2%

Got a couple of friends who pay that 

1 pence for every pound collected is well worth it.

Got most of my round on it now.

Just the softwashing and pressure washing that pays online pretty much now.

It's 20p minimum, your friends might be on 1% but if they are only taking £10 on average then it would work out at 2%.  My minimum charge is £15 so never pay more than 1.5%.  Even at 2% though I still think it's well worth it.

 

[Chris33]

We are a very well established company and I don’t use go cardless , I think some will be put off and others might be ok with it , it’s your choice in the end but I think your growth will be slower if you only take on people who sign up to it . 

Lee Pryor has 10 Van's I think and last time I heard he was 90% gocardless and aiming to be 100% this year or so. It can be done pjj and at a fast rate too

Honest the more you get other local window cleaners using it, it starts becoming the norm. 

 

[Dave B]

It's 20p minimum, your friends might be on 1% but if they are only taking £10 on average then it would work out at 2%.  My minimum charge is £15 so never pay more than 1.5%.  Even at 2% though I still think it's well worth it.

It's not 20p minimum for me.

1% flat rate and no more than 2 quid for any transaction although I'd love a transaction worth 2 quid on 1%.

Had my account for about 4 years though. 

I would only pay 15p for a 15 quid payment anytime.

 

[Pjj]

Lee Pryor has 10 Van's I think and last time I heard he was 90% gocardless and aiming to be 100% this year or so. It can be done pjj and at a fast rate too

Honest the more you get other local window cleaners using it, it starts becoming the norm. 

I agree with what you are saying but I live in a part of the country that doesn’t like change ??? I already have payment by cheque , cash , bacs and constantly checking who owes who has paid is a pain , ime personally not wanting to add yet another payment type into my business, I know most of my customers wouldn’t like the idear of me or anyone else taking money out of there account, Cornwall is quite reserved in a number of ways and this is one of them , if all paid in this way I think it would work well but trying to convince several thousand customers would prove a n impossible task . 

 

[Chris34]

I agree with what you are saying but I live in a part of the country that doesn’t like change ??? I already have payment by cheque , cash , bacs and constantly checking who owes who has paid is a pain , ime personally not wanting to add yet another payment type into my business, I know most of my customers wouldn’t like the idear of me or anyone else taking money out of there account, Cornwall is quite reserved in a number of ways and this is one of them , if all paid in this way I think it would work well but trying to convince several thousand customers would prove a n impossible task . 

One trick I use is for women between 50 and 65ish years old.  On sign up when doing the quote in person I say it's direct debit, sometimes they say 'don't you accept cash' I say 'well I do but it's for old people, they're not that familiar with direct debit', they then accept and go for the direct debit.  What this does is two things, first thing is it's a hidden compliment, telling them they're not 'old', secondly they don't want to persist as it will make them seem 'old' as cash payers are 'old'.  Honestly, I love saying that line, it throws their concentration, the last thing they want to be thought of is 'old'.  It also makes me seem kind as I'm doing the 'old' people a favour.   :1f603: