Bank payments are the cheapest way for most agencies to get paid: a bank transfer or pay by bank costs no more than £4.20 on Adfin, whether the invoice is £870 or £6,900, while cards cost a percentage with no ceiling. The bigger cost is often the wait and the chasing, so making it easy to pay on time matters as much as the fee.
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The short version
- Bank transfer and pay by bank cost at most £4.20 on Adfin, whether the invoice is £870 or £6,900.
- Cards have no cap: £69.20 on a standard card and £138.20 on a business card for a £6,900 fee.
- Direct debits over £2,000 carry an extra 0.3%, so direct debit suits weekly temp invoices better than perm fees.
- A plain bank transfer has hidden costs in manual matching and chasing.
- Statutory interest on a £6,900 fee paid a month late comes to £66.64, about 16 times the £4.20 cost of collecting it by bank.
What each payment method costs
Take two typical invoices, a £6,900 perm fee and an £870 weekly temp invoice. Here's what each costs to collect on Adfin's published pricing of 1% + 20p per successful payment, with the percentage capped at £4 on bank payments and direct debit.
| Payment method | £6,900 perm fee | £870 temp invoice |
|---|---|---|
| Bank transfer (unique bank details) | £4.20 | £4.20 |
| Pay by bank | £4.20 | £4.20 |
| Direct debit | Above the £5,000 default limit; extra 0.3% over £2,000 | £4.20 |
| Standard UK card | £69.20 | £8.90 |
| Business card, Amex or EEA card | £138.20 | £17.60 |
The bank figures are £4.20 because 1% of either invoice is more than £4 (£69 and £8.70), so the cap applies. Cards have no cap, which is why the gap widens so quickly on perm fees.
Direct debit needs a word of care on large fees. Direct debits over £2,000 carry an extra 0.3%, and for companies the default direct debit limit is £5,000, so a £6,900 fee wouldn't be collected by direct debit unless you raise the limit. For a one-off perm fee, pay by bank does the same job without a mandate. Direct debit comes into its own on repeat temp invoices, where one mandate covers every weekly collection at whatever amount the timesheet comes to.
If clients do pay by business card, you can pass the cost on by switching on surcharging, which adds a surcharge to business card payments and never to personal cards. The 20p fee still applies to you.
Why a plain bank transfer isn't free
A transfer straight into your business bank account has no payment provider fee. It still costs you something, just not on a statement.
Someone has to match each payment to an invoice, and clients don't always use your reference. A client who pays three perm fees in one lump, or pays £860 against an £870 invoice, turns a two-second job into a phone call. Then there's chasing, which falls to whoever has a gap in their day, often the founder.
With unique bank details, each client sees their own account number and sort code in your business's name, so payments are matched to the right invoice and marked paid in Xero or QuickBooks automatically, part payments included. A bank transfer to those details costs the same £4.20 at most.
What a late payment costs you
The fee for collecting a payment is small next to the cost of waiting for it.
One way to put a number on the wait is statutory interest, the rate you're entitled to charge a business that pays late: 8% above the Bank of England base rate, currently 11.75% a year. On a £6,900 fee that's about £2.22 a day. A month late, it comes to £66.64, close to 16 times the £4.20 it costs to collect the fee by bank.
For temp agencies, the cost is more direct. Payroll goes out every week, so each late invoice is wages you've already paid out of your own cash. If you fund that with an overdraft or invoice finance, you're paying for that delay in interest or fees.
Late payment is common. Xero's data for UK small businesses in general shows invoices paid 8.3 days late on average, and REC member data in its 2024/25 status report shows 35% of recruitment firms had bad debt in the past year, against 29% across sectors.
The chasing has a cost too: the hours spent on emails, the reminder you didn't send because the client is good repeat business, and the awkward call to a hiring manager you'd rather keep on side.
A low-cost set-up for perm and temp
For many agencies, a low-cost set-up looks something like this:
- Perm fees by pay by bank or bank transfer to unique bank details, with card switched off or surcharged for business cards.
- Weekly temp invoices by direct debit for repeat clients, with a payment link for everyone else.
- Reminders that go out on the due date without anyone remembering to send them.
Adfin's AI Customer Agents cover that third point, sending reminders by email, SMS or WhatsApp under rules you approve, and leaving alone any client you'd rather handle yourself. Essential credit control is included in the per-payment price, and the enhanced version costs 0.3% per paid invoice, only when it's used.
Common questions
Is bank transfer cheaper than card for a recruitment agency? It's never dearer. On Adfin a bank payment costs 1% + 20p with the percentage capped at £4, so on any invoice over £400 it's cheaper than every card type.
How much does it cost to collect a £10,000 perm fee? By bank transfer or pay by bank on Adfin, £4.20. On a business card it's £200.20 (2% + 20p), and you can surcharge business cards to pass the cost on.
Should I use direct debit for perm fees? It's possible, but each perm fee is a one-off and direct debits over £2,000 carry an extra 0.3%. Pay by bank usually suits a single large fee better.
Do I pay a fee if a direct debit fails? Not on Adfin. You're only charged for successful payments, and failed direct debits are retried for free.
Are there monthly fees on top of the per-payment price? Adfin has no monthly fee, no minimums and no minimum contract.
Can I charge clients for paying late? Yes, if they're a business. Statutory interest is 8% above the Bank of England base rate, currently 11.75% a year, plus a fixed sum of £40 to £100 per invoice.
Sources
- Adfin - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/pricing
- Adfin - Managing payment limits for each payment method (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.adfin.com/en/articles/10840569-managing-payment-limits-for-each-payment-method
- GOV.UK - Late commercial payments: charging interest on commercial debt (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery/charging-interest-commercial-debt
- REC - Recruitment Industry Status Report 2024/25 (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.rec.uk.com/our-view/research/recruitment-and-industry-status-report/uk-recruitment-industry-status-report-202425
