About 5 billion direct debits were collected in the UK in 2025, moving over £1.5 trillion, and volume is still growing slowly. Only a small slice is business to business, though: under 3% of the total. For a business with recurring invoices, direct debit is a familiar, trusted way to get paid on the date you choose, and open banking is growing alongside it for one-off payments rather than replacing it.
In this article
The short version
- About 5 billion direct debits moved £1.53 trillion in the UK in 2025, a record year.
- Business-to-business direct debits are under 3% of the total.
- Open banking payments grew 57% to 351 million, mostly one-off pay by bank.
- A commercial VRP scheme launched in June 2026, but direct debit remains the established option for recurring collections.
- For recurring invoices, direct debit sets the payment date instead of the customer's payment run.
How much the UK uses direct debit
Pay.UK, which runs the Bacs system, recorded 5.03 billion direct debits in 2025, worth £1.53 trillion. Volume rose 1.8% on 2024 and value 3.3%, and Pay.UK described it as a record year. The average collection was about £305.
| Payment type (2025) | Payments | Change on 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Faster Payments | 5.55 billion | Not compared |
| Direct debit | 5.03 billion | Up 1.8% |
| Open banking payments | 351 million | Up 57% |
Direct debit isn't the biggest bank payment system: Faster Payments carries about 10% more, because it handles every one-off transfer from splitting a bill to paying a supplier. Direct debit's strength is recurring payments the collector starts, which is why energy, phone, council tax and insurance bills make up most of it.
People trust it too. In a 2026 survey Pay.UK commissioned, 98% of consumers were aware of direct debit and 92% were satisfied with it, and 80% of merchants surveyed said the Direct Debit Guarantee made them more willing to accept it. The finance teams you invoice are likely to pay some of their own bills this way already.
How businesses use direct debit to pay each other
Business-to-business direct debits were 136 million in 2025, about 2.7% of the total. Business rates, tax and National Insurance make up close to a fifth of that, and general supplier collections and commercial billing together come to under 2% of all direct debits.
So there's plenty of room for growth. Most businesses still pay supplier invoices by bank transfer, on their own payment run, on their own timetable. When a customer pays you on day 45 of 30-day terms, that's often why. With a direct debit mandate in place, you set the collection date instead.
For recurring B2B billing, three things make direct debit work better than people expect:
- The amount can change from month to month under one mandate, so a maintenance contract with variable call-outs or a per-user IT support bill doesn't need a new sign-up each time, as long as you give advance notice of each collection.
- The mandate stays in place until either side cancels it, and the contract, not the mandate, carries the term.
- The customer signs once, online, and doesn't re-sign each month.
Where pay by bank and variable recurring payments fit
Open banking payments grew 57% in 2025 to 351 million, which is fast but still about one for every 14 direct debits. Most of it is one-off pay by bank, where the customer approves a single payment in their banking app. It suits customers who pay invoice by invoice and won't sign a mandate, and the payment arrives quickly.
Variable recurring payments (VRPs) let a customer give a business standing permission to take payments over open banking within agreed limits. So far they're mainly used for moving money between a person's own accounts. A commercial VRP scheme, run by the industry-led UK Payments Initiative, launched in June 2026, and the FCA plans to consult on a long-term framework by the end of 2026, subject to new legislation. It's likely to be some time before VRP is a routine way to collect business invoices, so for recurring collections today, direct debit remains the established option.
Should you collect your invoices by direct debit
If you bill the same customers every month or quarter, for retainers, maintenance contracts, monitoring or support, direct debit is usually worth offering. It takes the payment date out of the customer's payment run, cuts the chasing for regular invoices and gives you a predictable cash flow. For one-off project invoices or customers who won't sign a mandate, a pay-by-bank or card link is the easier ask.
In practice you'll want both, and it helps to run them in one place. Adfin collects direct debit, pay by bank, card, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and matches each payment back to the invoice in Xero or QuickBooks. Its fee is 1% + 20p, with the percentage capped at £4 on direct debit and bank payments, and there's no charge for a failed collection. If a direct debit fails, Adfin retries it for free and can fall back to the customer's card, and a customer who never signs the mandate is offered another way to pay. Direct debit payments reach your account in full within three working days of the collection date.
Once most customers are on direct debit, you're left with a handful of exceptions: a cancelled mandate, a bounced collection, the one customer still paying by transfer. Adfin's AI agents can pick those up, chasing over email, SMS or WhatsApp on a schedule you set and within rules you approve.
Common questions
How many direct debits were there in the UK in 2025? Pay.UK recorded about 5.03 billion, worth £1.53 trillion, up 1.8% in volume and 3.3% in value on 2024.
Was 2025 a record year for direct debit? Pay.UK described 2025 as a record, with direct debit passing 5 billion transactions.
Do 62% of UK merchants accept direct debit? 62% of the more than 300 merchants surveyed for Pay.UK in 2026 accepted it, which describes those respondents rather than all UK merchants.
How many business-to-business direct debits are there? About 136 million in 2025, or 2.7% of the total, including business rates and tax collections as well as supplier billing.
Can the amount of a direct debit change each month? Yes. One mandate covers varying amounts, provided you give the customer advance notice of each collection.
Can variable recurring payments replace direct debit for business collections? Not yet. A commercial VRP scheme launched in June 2026, and it's likely to be some time before it's a routine option for collecting business invoices.
Sources
- Pay.UK - Annual summary of payment statistics 2025 (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.wearepay.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Annual-Statistics-2025-v1.3.pdf
- Pay.UK - Bacs Payment System statistics (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.wearepay.uk/what-we-do/payment-systems/bacs-payment-system/bacs-payment-system-statistics/
- Pay.UK - Direct Debit hits record 5 billion transactions in 2025 - retaining its place as the UK's go-to for recurring payments (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.wearepay.uk/direct-debit-hits-record-5-billion-transactions-in-2025-retaining-its-place-as-the-uks-go-to-for-recurring-payments/
- Open Banking Limited - Open Banking in 2025: Now Part of the UK's Everyday Financial Life (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.openbanking.org.uk/insights/open-banking-in-2025-now-part-of-the-uks-everyday-financial-life/
- FCA - Open banking takes next step forward with launch of UK Payments Initiative scheme (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.fca.org.uk/news/statements/open-banking-launch-uk-payments-initiative-scheme
- Adfin - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/pricing
