Some do. GoCardless charges its transaction fee on every payment you submit, whether or not it succeeds, so a failed collection and its retry can cost you twice. If you run direct debit through your own bank facility, the bank's charges are usually per item submitted. Adfin charges only when a payment succeeds, retries failed direct debits for free and then asks the customer to pay another way.
In this article
The short version
- Some providers do: GoCardless charges its transaction fee on every submitted payment, successful or not.
- A collection that fails and is retried can cost you twice.
- Adfin charges only on successful payments, retries failed direct debits free and then asks for another way to pay.
- Ask any provider about failure fees, retries, fallback methods and whether fees come out of payouts.
- A failed collection and an indemnity claim are different events, so ask about both.
Who charges for a failed direct debit
Direct debits fail for ordinary reasons. The money isn't in the account on the day, the customer has changed bank, or the mandate has been cancelled. The payer's bank sends the collection back with a reason code, and your provider either retries it or tells you it's failed.
Whether that costs you anything depends on how the provider charges, and it's often not obvious from the headline price.
| Set-up | Charged on a failed collection? | Charged on the retry? |
|---|---|---|
| GoCardless | Yes, the transaction fee applies to every submitted payment | Yes, as another submitted payment |
| Your own bank facility | Banks usually charge per item submitted | Usually, as another item |
| Adfin | No, fees apply only to successful payments | No, retries are free |
GoCardless publishes this in its own support pages: transaction fees are charged on all submitted payments, successful or not. It also deducts its fees from your payout before the money reaches you, so the fees on failed collections are taken out of money you've collected from other customers.
If you have your own Service User Number, your bank's tariff is the place to look. Bank facilities are typically priced per item submitted and per file, so a collection that fails and is presented again is likely to be charged as two items.
What a failure can cost you
Take a £150 monthly fee that fails once and goes through on the retry. On GoCardless's Standard plan, 1% + 20p applies to both submissions, so you pay £1.70 twice, £3.40 in total, for one payment. On Adfin you pay £1.70 once, when the payment succeeds.
A few pounds on one invoice isn't much. Across a client base on monthly fees, though, some failures tend to come round again, and the fee on each failed attempt adds up.
A per-attempt fee can also change how you handle failures. If every retry costs money, you're more inclined to give up on a small invoice after one failure, or to pass a charge to your customer. Charging a customer for a bounced direct debit tends to turn what's often a timing problem, such as money arriving in their account a day late, into an argument.
Then there's the time. A failed collection that isn't retried automatically becomes a job for someone: noticing the failure, contacting the customer, agreeing a new date or another way to pay, and matching the payment when it comes in.
What to ask a provider before you sign
Five questions get you the whole picture. Ask for the answers in writing:
- Is there a fee when a collection fails, and does it depend on the reason?
- Is a retry charged as a new payment?
- Does the provider retry automatically, and can you choose how many times?
- If retries fail, can the customer pay another way, for example by card, without you setting anything up?
- Are fees taken out of your payouts or invoiced separately?
The fourth question tends to matter most. A provider that charges nothing for failures but has no other way to collect the money still leaves you chasing the customer by hand.
It's also worth knowing that a failed collection is different from an indemnity claim, where a customer's bank refunds a payment under the Direct Debit Guarantee and recovers it from you. Providers treat the two separately, so ask about both.
How Adfin handles failed direct debits
Adfin charges 1% + 20p per successful payment, with the 1% capped at £4 on direct debit and bank payments, and nothing for a payment that fails. When a direct debit fails, it's retried for free, one to three times depending on your settings. If none of the retries work, the customer is sent a request to pay another way, or the payment can fall back to a card on file.
Payouts arrive every weekday in full, with fees invoiced separately, so a failed collection never reduces money you've already collected. Adfin's collection agents can follow up anything still unpaid by email, SMS or WhatsApp, on the schedule and within the rules you set.
Common questions
Do payment providers charge for failed direct debits? Some do. GoCardless charges its transaction fee on every submitted payment, including ones that fail. Adfin charges only on successful payments.
Does Adfin charge for a failed direct debit or a retry? No. Adfin charges nothing when a payment fails, and retries are free.
Is a retry charged as a new payment? It depends on the provider. On GoCardless a retry is another submitted payment, so the fee applies again.
What happens after the retries run out? With Adfin, the customer is asked to pay another way, and Adfin can fall back to a card on file.
Can I charge my customer for a failed direct debit? Only if your contract allows it, and a charge for a bounced payment can easily turn a timing problem into a dispute.
Is a failed direct debit the same as an indemnity claim? No. A failure means the bank couldn't take the payment. An indemnity claim is a refund under the Direct Debit Guarantee that's recovered from you afterwards.
Sources
- GoCardless Support Centre - Pricing and fees FAQs (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.gocardless.com/hc/en-gb/articles/115002831125-Transactions-and-fees-FAQs
- GoCardless Support Centre - Pricing & Fees (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.gocardless.com/hc/en-gb/articles/21721571804188-Pricing-Fees
- GoCardless - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://gocardless.com/pricing/
- Bacs - Glossary (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.bacs.co.uk/resources/glossary/
- Adfin - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/pricing
- Adfin - Next-generation direct debit (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/direct-debit-payments
