On GoCardless's Standard plan, a UK direct debit costs 1% + 20p, capped at £4, plus 0.3% on any part of a collection above £2,000, with VAT added to the fee. The fee applies to every payment you submit, including ones that fail, and it's taken out of your money before it's paid to you. GoCardless doesn't take cards or chase unpaid invoices, so those costs sit elsewhere in your bill.
In this article
The short version
- GoCardless Standard is 1% + 20p per collection, capped at £4.
- Collections over £2,000 add 0.3% on the part above £2,000, and VAT is charged on fees.
- The fee applies to every submitted payment, including failed ones.
- Fees come out before payout, and branding costs £50 a month.
- GoCardless doesn't take cards or chase unpaid invoices.
What GoCardless charges per collection
GoCardless publishes three self-serve plans for UK direct debit. Standard is 1% + 20p capped at £4, Advanced is 1.25% + 20p capped at £5, and Pro is 1.4% + 20p capped at £5.60.
Most small businesses are on Standard, so here's what a single collection costs on it, before VAT:
| Collection | GoCardless Standard fee |
|---|---|
| £50 | £0.70 |
| £100 | £1.20 |
| £250 | £2.70 |
| £500 to £2,000 | £4 (the cap) |
| £5,000 | £4 cap plus £9 high-value fee |
Two things change that picture. Collections over £2,000 carry an extra 0.3% on the part above £2,000, charged on top of the capped fee, so a £5,000 collection adds £9 to the £4. And GoCardless charges VAT on its transaction fees even if your business is VAT exempt, so if you can't recover VAT, every fee in the table costs you a fifth more.
Once your collections pass about £400, the fee per collection stops growing until you reach £2,000. A £1,900 invoice costs the same to collect as a £450 one.
What the headline rate leaves out
The per-transaction rate is the easy part to compare. GoCardless's own pages list several other things that affect what you pay and what's left for you to do:
- Failed collections: GoCardless takes its transaction fee on each payment you submit, successful or not, so a £600 collection that fails and goes in again carries two fees for one payment.
- Fees deducted at source: GoCardless pays out what it collected minus its fees, so what lands in your bank doesn't add up to the invoices behind it, and someone has to split the fees out before the books reconcile.
- Payout timing: a Bacs collection takes three business days on an existing mandate (four for a new customer), and GoCardless pays out two business days after that, so it's roughly five business days from when the payment is created.
- Your name on statements: showing your own name on customers' bank statements is a £50 monthly add-on, and without it they see GoCardless.
- Failed payment recovery: GoCardless's Success+ tool starts on the Advanced plan.
GoCardless also collects only direct debits and bank payments. It doesn't take cards, remind customers who haven't signed a mandate, chase invoices paid by transfer or add late fees, so if you need any of that, you'll be paying for a card processor or a chasing tool alongside it, each with its own fees.
What £300 a month in fees tells you
Above about £400 a collection, your monthly GoCardless bill is mostly a count of how many payments you take. That's why a bill can feel high even when every invoice is modest.
Take £300 a month of Standard fees as an example. That's 75 collections at the £4 cap, or 250 collections of £100 at £1.20 each. With VAT on top it becomes £360, and because the fees are deducted from payouts, nobody in the business has to approve it each month.
To check your own figures:
- Add up last month's GoCardless fees from your payout reports, and note whether VAT is included.
- Divide by the number of payments you submitted, including any that failed.
- Add the £50 branding fee if you pay it, plus whatever you spend on card processing and chasing software.
How Adfin prices the same collection
Adfin charges 1% + 20p per successful payment, with the percentage capped at £4 on direct debit and bank payments, so a direct debit costs at most £4.20 before the high-value charge of 0.3% on amounts above £2,000. A failed direct debit costs nothing, and Adfin retries it free before asking the customer to pay another way.
You're paid every weekday, in full, with Adfin's fees invoiced separately, so fees never come out of your payouts. Direct debits arrive within three working days of the collection date. Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, pay by bank and bank transfer sit on the same payment link, and chasing over email, SMS and WhatsApp is included. Adfin's collection agents can follow up unpaid invoices, retry payments and send statements within rules you set. Your own business name on direct debit statements is £36 a month.
If you move with 10 or more mandates, your customers don't sign anything new: Adfin moves the mandates across through the Bacs bulk change process and collections carry on. With fewer than 10, customers sign a new Adfin mandate.
Common questions
How much does GoCardless charge on a £1,000 direct debit? On the Standard plan, the £4 cap applies, plus VAT. On Advanced the cap is £5 and on Pro £5.60.
Does GoCardless charge for failed direct debits? Yes, in effect. Its transaction fee is charged on every payment you submit, whether or not the collection succeeds.
Are GoCardless fees before or after VAT? Before. GoCardless charges VAT on its transaction fees, and that applies even if your business is VAT exempt.
Does the £4 cap apply to large payments? Up to £2,000. Above that, GoCardless adds 0.3% on the part of the payment over £2,000, charged on top of the capped fee.
Can GoCardless take card payments or chase invoices? No. It collects direct debits and bank payments only, so card payments and reminders need separate tools.
Will my customers need to re-sign if I leave GoCardless for Adfin? No, if you have 10 or more mandates: they move through the Bacs bulk change process. With fewer than 10, customers sign a new Adfin mandate.
Sources
- GoCardless - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://gocardless.com/pricing/
- GoCardless Support Centre - Pricing & Fees (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.gocardless.com/hc/en-gb/articles/21721571804188-Pricing-Fees
- GoCardless Support Centre - Transactions and fees FAQs (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.gocardless.com/hc/en-gb/articles/115002831125-Transactions-and-fees-FAQs
- GoCardless Support Centre - Bacs (UK) payment timings (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.gocardless.com/hc/en-gb/articles/210535689-Bacs-UK-payment-timings
- 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
