SEPA direct debit lets a small business in Ireland take an agreed amount from a customer's euro bank account on a set date, once the customer has signed a mandate giving permission. You tell the customer about each collection in advance, 14 calendar days ahead unless you've both agreed a shorter period, and after that the money moves without the customer doing anything. For eight weeks after any authorised collection, the customer can ask their bank for a refund.
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The short version
- Customers sign a SEPA mandate once and collections then run on set dates.
- Notice goes out 14 calendar days before each collection unless a shorter period is agreed.
- Sixty €45 collections cost €39 a month at Adfin's 20c + 1%.
- A returned collection means contacting the customer and offering another way to pay.
- Customers can get a no-questions refund within eight weeks of a collection.
From sign-up to the first collection
Say you run a cleaning company with 60 households on a €45 monthly plan. At the moment each of them sends a bank transfer when they remember, and you'd like the money to arrive on the 5th of every month instead. Here's how it runs up to Friday 5 March 2027, the first collection.
- Each customer signs a mandate. They do this once, and it covers the collections that follow. Keep it on file, because it's your proof that a collection was authorised if one is ever questioned.
- Your collections need a creditor identifier, a 13-character code issued by a bank, in a format like IE97ZZZ123456. If you collect through your own bank, the bank gives you one. If you use a payment provider, ask whose identifier and whose name your customers will see on their statements.
- Customers get notice of the collection. Under the SEPA rules it has to be sent at least 14 calendar days before the due date, so by Friday 19 February for a 5 March collection. If your sign-up terms set a shorter notice period and the customer agrees to it, you can send the notice later.
- The collection reaches each customer's bank by Thursday 4 March, at least one business day before the due date. A provider handles this step for you; if you submit files to your own bank, you work to its cut-off time.
- On 5 March, €45 leaves each customer's account.
When you raise the price later, say to €50 from June, customers first see the new amount in the notice before the June collection, so send that notice with the same lead time.
A month of collections in euro
Sixty customers at €45 comes to €2,700 a month, collected on one date rather than drifting in over three or four weeks. What it costs to collect depends on who you use.
Adfin charges 20c + 1% per successful payment, and you only pay when a payment succeeds. A €45 direct debit costs 65c (45c plus 20c), so a full month of 60 collections costs €39. On SEPA direct debit and bank transfer the 1% part is capped at €2, which means a direct debit of up to €2,000 costs at most €2.20; card payments aren't capped. Nothing is charged monthly or for setup, and there's no contract to sign.
| Monthly plan | Adfin fee per direct debit | Adfin fees per customer per year |
|---|---|---|
| €45 | €0.65 | €7.80 |
| €95 | €1.15 | €13.80 |
| €300 | €2.20 | €26.40 |
The time saved can matter as much as the fee, because with 60 bank transfers you'd be matching each one to an invoice, often against a missing or mistyped reference. If you use Xero or QuickBooks, Adfin is a certified app for both with two-way sync, and a payment collected through it is marked paid in your accounts automatically.
When a collection comes back or a customer asks for a refund
Suppose that in April two of the 60 collections don't arrive. One customer didn't have enough in their account, and the other had closed theirs. A collection can be rejected before the money moves between banks or returned after it, but in both cases you're €90 short and need to contact the customers. A payment link sent by text or WhatsApp lets each of them pay that month by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or bank transfer while you sort out the next collection, and the customer with the closed account will need to give you details of their new one.
Refunds run to a different clock: if a customer contacts their bank on 20 April about the 5 March collection, they're inside the eight-week window, which runs to 30 April, and the bank refunds the €45 with no questions asked. A refund inside that window isn't something you can contest with the bank, so the next step is to talk to the customer about collecting the €45 again.
If the same customer waits until 10 May, the eight weeks have passed. They can then only claim a refund by saying the collection wasn't authorised, and they have up to 13 months from the debit date to do that. The signed mandate from step 1 is what shows it was.
One rule matters for customers you only collect from now and then. A mandate that goes 36 months without a collection lapses, so a household that pauses its plan for three years would need to sign again.
Common questions
Do customers have to do anything each month with a SEPA direct debit? No. Once they've signed the mandate, each collection is taken on the date in the notice they've received, without them logging in or approving it.
How much does it cost to collect a €45 direct debit in Ireland? With Adfin it costs 65c: 1% of €45 is 45c, plus 20c. You pay only when the payment succeeds, with no monthly or setup fee.
How far ahead do I have to tell a customer about a direct debit? At least 14 calendar days before the collection date, unless you and the customer have agreed a shorter period, and you can include it on the invoice.
What happens if a customer's direct debit bounces? The collection is rejected or returned, for reasons such as insufficient funds or a closed account, and you don't receive the money. Contact the customer and offer another way to pay that month, such as a payment link.
How long can a customer claim back a SEPA direct debit? For eight weeks after the debit date they can get a refund with no questions asked. After that, they have up to 13 months to claim if they say the collection wasn't authorised.
Do I need my own creditor identifier to use a direct debit provider? Irish creditor identifiers are issued by banks, and some payment providers collect under their own identifier by default. Ask any provider whose identifier and name your customers will see before you start.
Sources
- European Payments Council - 2025 SEPA Direct Debit Core Rulebook, version 1.0 (accurate as of November 2026) https://europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/sites/default/files/kb/file/2024-11/EPC016-06%202025%20SDD%20Core%20Rulebook%20version%201.0.pdf
- European Payments Council - Creditor Identifier Overview (accurate as of November 2026) https://www.oenb.at/dam/jcr:5193cd07-f090-4378-abcd-06d97c700ab2/EPC262-08-v12-0-Creditor-Identifier-Overview.pdf
- Citizens Information - Payment Services Directive (accurate as of November 2026) https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money-and-tax/personal-finance/eu-payments/psd2/
- Stripe - SEPA Direct Debit payments (accurate as of November 2026) https://docs.stripe.com/payments/sepa-debit
