Adfin, GoCardless, Access PaySuite, Stripe, Mollie and Bottomline all collect Bacs Direct Debit for UK businesses. London & Zurich is a long-established direct debit bureau that prices by quote, with no cap published on any tier, so businesses tend to look elsewhere when they want published pricing, a cap on large collections, or card payments and chasing in the same place.
In this article
The short version
- London & Zurich prices by quote, from around 1%, with no cap published on any tier.
- Adfin collects direct debit with no SUN of your own, at 1% + 20p with the percentage capped at £4.
- GoCardless has no card payments or chasing; Stripe and Mollie take cards; Access PaySuite and Bottomline price by quote.
- With 10 or more mandates, Adfin moves them from London & Zurich without customers re-signing.
- With fewer than 10, customers sign a new Adfin mandate.
Why businesses look beyond London & Zurich
London & Zurich has run direct debit collections for decades and is authorised by the FCA as a payment institution. It works as a bureau, collecting under your own Service User Number (SUN, the number that identifies a business collecting direct debits) or without one, and manages submissions, rejections and customer queries for you.
Its pricing comes in three tiers: Foundation at around 1%, Business from 0.5% or 20p, and Enterprise with banded pricing. You agree all three by quote, and none has a published cap. If your invoices run into the thousands, that matters: around 1% on a £3,000 collection is £30, where a capped provider charges a few pounds.
Scope is the other reason. London & Zurich centres on direct debit, with card payments as an add-on. If you also want clients who won't sign a mandate to pay by card or bank, and unpaid invoices chased automatically, you'd be adding more suppliers around it.
Six alternatives at a glance
| Provider | Published direct debit price | Card payments | How you buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| London & Zurich (today) | Around 1%, or from 0.5% or 20p | Add-on | Quote |
| Adfin | 1% + 20p, percentage capped at £4 | Included | Sign up online, with a short onboarding call |
| GoCardless | 1% + 20p, capped at £4 (Standard) | Not offered | Sign up online |
| Access PaySuite | From 8p per payment | Separate product | Quote |
| Stripe | 1%, 20p minimum, capped at £4 | Included | Sign up online |
| Mollie | 0.9% + 20p, no cap published | Included | Sign up online |
| Bottomline | Not published | Separate product | Sales conversation |
The six alternatives
1. Adfin
Adfin collects direct debit alongside card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, pay by bank and bank transfer, and chases whatever isn't paid, all in one platform.
- You don't need your own SUN or a bank direct debit facility. Collections run under Adfin's, and Adfin's name appears on customers' statements unless you choose Adfin Custom at onboarding (£36 a month) to show your own business name.
- Pricing: 1% + 20p per successful collection, with the percentage capped at £4, so a £3,000 direct debit costs under £15, including the 0.3% Adfin adds on amounts above £2,000. No monthly fee and no contract.
- Customers are told at least three working days before each collection, and the amount can vary from month to month under one mandate.
- A failed direct debit costs nothing. Adfin retries it for free, then asks the customer to pay another way, by card or bank.
- Unpaid invoices are chased by email, SMS and WhatsApp from your own email domain, and Adfin's AI Customer Agents work within rules you set.
- Payouts arrive every weekday in full, with direct debits landing within three working days of the collection date and Adfin's fee invoiced separately. Payments are matched to invoices and synced to Xero or QuickBooks.
2. GoCardless
A direct debit provider you can sign up to online, collecting under its own name.
- Pricing: Standard 1% + 20p capped at £4, Advanced 1.25% + 20p capped at £5, Pro 1.4% + 20p capped at £5.60, with 0.3% added on the amount above £2,000. Showing your business name on customers' statements costs £50 a month.
- GoCardless charges its fee on every payment submitted, whether it succeeds or not, and deducts fees before paying you.
- Limitation: it doesn't take card payments or chase invoices.
3. Access PaySuite
The Access Group's direct debit bureau, authorised by the FCA as a payment institution.
- You can collect under your own SUN through the bureau, so your name shows on statements, under the bureau's SUN, or by submitting files to Bacs directly.
- Pricing: from 8p per transaction with no setup fee, with your actual rate quoted on your volumes and average payment size.
- Worth checking: its direct debit terms run for 12 months and renew for 12 more, need three months' notice, charge an early termination fee equal to three months' invoices on a bulk cancellation, and allow a reserve of at least 25% of average monthly collections to be held for at least six months after you leave.
4. Stripe
Stripe collects Bacs Direct Debit as one of many payment methods on its platform.
- Pricing: 1% per collection, with a 20p minimum and a £4 cap, and £5 for a disputed payment.
- Fees come out before Stripe pays you, so each payout is a net total to match back to invoices.
- Worth checking: you set up mandates and collections through Stripe's dashboard or its API, which suits businesses already taking card payments on Stripe.
5. Mollie
An online payments provider offering Bacs Direct Debit alongside cards and pay by bank.
- Pricing: Bacs Direct Debit and pay by bank are both 0.9% + 20p, with no cap published. UK consumer cards are 1.2% + 20p.
- Mollie doesn't charge a monthly fee for online payments or tie you into a contract.
- Worth checking: without a cap, a £3,000 collection costs £27.20.
6. Bottomline
A Bacs software company that also runs a facilities-managed direct debit service for businesses without their own SUN.
- Pricing isn't published, so you'll go through a sales conversation and a quote.
- Card payments are a separate Bottomline product.
How to move your mandates without customers re-signing
Adfin moves direct debit mandates across from London & Zurich. With 10 or more mandates, they transfer through the Bacs bulk change process: your customers keep paying as before and don't sign anything new, and they're told about the change in writing. With fewer than 10, each customer signs a new Adfin mandate.
Before you switch, list your live mandates and the collections already scheduled, so nothing is collected twice or missed around the switch date. It also helps to tell your largest customers yourself, so the new name on their statement isn't a surprise.
Common questions
Will my customers have to sign new mandates if I leave London & Zurich? Not if you move 10 or more to Adfin. They transfer through the Bacs bulk change process without customers re-signing; with fewer than 10, customers sign a new Adfin mandate.
Do I need my own Service User Number to collect direct debit? Not with Adfin, GoCardless or Stripe, which collect under their own. Access PaySuite and Bottomline can collect under a bureau SUN too.
Does London & Zurich cap its fees? No cap appears on any of its published tiers, so ask for one in writing if your collections are large.
Which alternatives take card payments as well as direct debit? Adfin, Stripe and Mollie take both in the same account. Adfin also chases unpaid invoices from the same platform.
Does Adfin charge for a failed direct debit? No. Adfin only charges on successful payments, retries failed direct debits for free and then offers the customer another way to pay.
How quickly does Adfin pay out direct debits? Within three working days of the collection date, every weekday, in full, with the fee invoiced separately.
Sources
- London & Zurich - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.londonandzurich.co.uk/pricing/
- 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
- GoCardless - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://gocardless.com/pricing/
- Access PaySuite - Direct debit pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.accesspaysuite.com/payments/direct-debit/pricing/
- Stripe - Local payment method pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://stripe.com/gb/pricing/local-payment-methods
