What is a SEPA Direct Debit?

In the SEPA direct debit process, one party withdraws funds from another party's bank account. Both parties can either be legal persons or a company. In order to do so, the payee needs a signed SEPA mandate from the payer. Direct debits are especially used for recurring payments and significantly cheaper than working with payment service providers.

In Germany, payees require a creditor ID in order to execute direct debits. The creditor ID is issued by the German Bundesbank on request.

The SEPA direct debit procedure is very simple thanks to the standardization within the SEPA areas

Accelerate your SEPA debit transfer with SEPA-Transfer

Using SEPA-Transfer, you can speed up the payment process significantly - especially if the SEPA debit transfer process is a recurring task!

To create a SEPA direct debit, you need a valid SEPA mandate. Here, our SEPA-Transfer solution provides you with preformatted templates. You can simply print these with the deposited data and assign a reference number (which can be similar to the contract number for example) to the ready-to-send SEPA mandate. For recurring payments and subscriptions, the reference numbers can be imported very easily. The payer, e.g. your customer or club member, only has to sign the SEPA mandate on paper. Mind that the bank won't check the accuracy of the SEPA direct debit itself.

Next, after importing the payment data from various file types like Excel, XML or CSV the direct debit can be comfortably initiated with our solution. Doing so, SEPA-Transfer automatically calculates a valid execution date, taking into account the prescribed lead time. Finally, repeat the process next time it is needed with just one click - even for multiple bank transactions on a specific date (e.g. for salaries).

Where does it come in handy?