SEPA Direct Debit Core
Beta

Last updated: October 9, 2024

Information

SEPA Direct Debit is also available through Flow. Flow enables you to accept payments on your website using Checkout.com's global network of payment methods with a single integration.

SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) is a direct debit system that enables you to collect payments from accounts in countries within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

SDD Core is a scheme designed specifically for consumers. It can be used for one-off transactions and recurring payments.

As part of the scheme, participating banks must charge the same fees for cross-border SDD core payments as they do for direct debit payments processed within their own country.

Information

To enable SDD Core payments on your account, contact your Account Manager or [email protected].

There are four steps to process an SDD Core payment with Checkout.com:

Set up the mandate with your customer to obtain consent. If you have an existing mandate ID, you can skip this step.
Send the customer a pre-notification notifying them of your intent to charge their account.
Create a SEPA payment source, if you want to store the mandate for use in a recurring payment series.
Request the payment.

Model	Collecting
Payment flow	Direct debit
Payment method type	Online banking
Authorization
Auto capture
Manual capture
Refund
Partial refund
Return/rejection
Chargeback
Recurring payment

To comply with SDD and European Payment Council (EPC) requirements, you must set up a mandate to obtain consent from your customer before you can collect payments from them via SDD Core.

The mandate you present to the customer should:

clearly set out the terms of the authorization
explicitly state that you are obtaining consent to debit the customer's bank account for a specific transaction, or set of recurring transactions
explain how the customer can revoke their direct debit authorization
be displayed on the same page where the customer is prompted for their bank details
inform the customer that by submitting their bank details, they are agreeing to the terms of the mandate

Information

The EPC requires mandates to include specific legal wording and mandatory information. For more information, refer to the EPC mandate guidelines. For additional guidance, contact your Account Manager or [email protected].

If you set up a mandate for a one-off transaction, you can only make one payment against the authorized mandate.

If the mandate is for a fixed or variable recurring transaction, you can make multiple payments against the mandate.

Information

If you have an existing mandate that you’d like to migrate to Checkout.com, contact your Account Manager.

A SEPA Creditor ID is a unique identifier for a company requesting an SDD Core payment, which helps customers identify debits on their account.

SDD Core payments processed by Checkout.com will be collected using the Checkout.com Creditor ID.

You must display the Checkout.com Creditor ID in the mandate authorization form you provide to the customer.

Information

If you already have a mandate ID and want to store it for use in a recurring payment series, you can skip to the create a SEPA source step.

If you already have a mandate ID and only want to perform a one-off payment, you can skip to the Request a payment step.

If you do not have a mandate ID, you can create one via the API. To do this, create an instrument with the mandate details.

post

https://api.checkout.com/instruments


1{
2  "type": "sepa",
3  "instrument_data": {
4    "account_number": "FR7630006000011234567890189",
5    "currency": "EUR",
6    "country": "FR",
7    "payment_type": "Recurring"
8  },
9  "account_holder": {
10    "first_name": "Ali",
11    "last_name": "Farid",
12    "billing_address": {
13      "address_line1": "Rue Exemple",
14      "address_line2": "1",
15      "city": "Paris",
16      "zip": "75000",
17      "country": "FR"
18    },
19    "phone": {
20      "country_code": "33",
21      "number": "123456789"
22    }
23  }
24}


1{
2  "type": "sepa",
3  "id": "src_wmlfc3zyhqzehihu7giusaaawu",
4  "fingerprint": "vnsdrvikkvre3dtrjjvlm5du4q"
5}

The id returned represents the saved instrument containing your mandate ID. To retrieve the mandate ID, use the

get

/instruments/{id} endpoint.

Information

There may be a short delay between when you create the instrument, and when the mandate ID can be returned via the request.

You must provide the mandate ID when you create a SEPA payment source, or request an SDD Core payment.

To comply with SDD requirements, you must send the customer a pre-notification before any funds are debited from their account. The pre-notification should contain the following information:

for a one-off mandate, the date the payment will be debited from their account
for a recurring mandate, the recurring date the payment will be debited from their account
the payment amount
the mandate ID
the creditor ID
your contact details

You must send the pre-notification within the notice period specified in the mandate you set up with the customer, no more than 14 days before the payment due date.

Information

As a guideline, we recommend that you send the pre-notification three working days before the payment due date.

You can send the pre-notification via any of the following methods:

email
phone
SMS
invoice
letter

If you want to store the mandate for use in a recurring payment series, you can create a SEPA payment source.

You can create the SEPA payment source:

before you perform your first payment request, using the /instruments endpoint
at the same time you perform your first payment request, using the /payments endpoint

You can use the

post

/instruments endpoint to store the mandate data.

You’ll receive an instrument ID which you can reuse as the source in future payment requests.

post

https://api.checkout.com/instruments


1{
2  "type": "sepa",
3  "instrument_data": {
4    "account_number": "FR7630006000011234567890189",
5    "currency": "EUR",
6    "country": "FR",
7    "mandate_id": "123456",
8    "payment_type": "regular",
9    "date_of_signature": "2022-08-22"
10  },
11  "account_holder": {
12    "first_name": "Ali",
13    "last_name": "Farid",
14    "billing_address": {
15      "address_line1": "Rue Exemple",
16      "address_line2": "1",
17      "city": "Paris",
18      "zip": "75000",
19      "country": "FR"
20    }
21  }
22}


1{
2  "type": "sepa",
3  "id": "src_wmlfc3zyhqzehihu7giusaaawu",
4  "fingerprint": "vnsdrvikkvre3dtrjjvlm5du4q"
5}

You can use the

post

/payments endpoint to create a SEPA payment source at the same time you perform your first payment request.

The request’s required payment_type field specifies both the type of payment and the type of mandate (regular or recurring). For more information on all required and optional fields, refer to the API reference.

post

https://api.checkout.com/payments


1{
2  "source": {
3    "type": "sepa",
4    "country": "FR",
5    "account_number": "FR7630006000011234567890189",
6    "currency": "EUR",
7    "mandate_id": "123456",
8    "date_of_signature": "2022-08-22",
9    "account_holder": {
10      "first_name": "Ali",
11      "last_name": "Farid",
12      "billing_address": {
13        "address_line1": "Rue Exemple",
14        "address_line2": "1",
15        "city": "Paris",
16        "zip": "75000",
17        "country": "FR"
18      }
19    }
20  },
21  "payment_type": "Regular",
22  "amount": 10000,
23  "currency": "EUR",
24  "processing_channel_id": "pc_xyz",
25  "success_url": "https://example.com/payments/success",
26  "failure_url": "https://example.com/payments/failure"
27}

If you receive a 202 Accepted response with a status field set to Pending, your request was successful.


1{
2  "id": "pay_ukzxtgobaoiu7l3gm2x6qxirru",
3  "status": "Pending",
4  "source": {
5    "id": "src_3ycibaogn7gexoo4p7i6jmitz4",
6    "type": "sepa"
7  },
8  "_links": {
9    "self": {
10      "href": "https://api.checkout.com/payments/pay_ukzxtgobaoiu7l3gm2x6qxirru"
11    }
12  }
13}

Use the payments API to request an SDD Core payment.

To request a payment against a one-off mandate, set payment_type to Regular. To request a payment against a recurring mandate, set payment_type to Recurring. For more information on all required and optional fields, refer to the API reference.

post

https://api.checkout.com/payments


1{
2  "payment_type": "Recurring",
3  "source": {
4    "type": "id",
5    "id": "src_wmlfc3zyhqzehihu7giusaaawu"
6  },
7  "amount": 10000,
8  "currency": "EUR",
9  "processing_channel_id": "pc_xyz",
10  "success_url": "https://example.com/payments/success",
11  "failure_url": "https://example.com/payments/failure"
12}

If you receive a 202 Accepted response with a status field set to Pending, your request was successful.


1{
2  "id": "pay_ukzxtgobaoiu7l3gm2x6qxirru",
3  "status": "Pending",
4  "source": {
5    "id": "src_wmlfc3zyhqzehihu7giusaaawu",
6    "type": "sepa"
7  },
8  "processing": {
9    "partner_payment_id": "GA3OX32ASX3E5A7"
10  },
11  "_links": {
12    "self": {
13      "href": "https://api.checkout.com/payments/pay_ukzxtgobaoiu7l3gm2x6qxirru"
14    }
15  }
16}


1{
2  "source": {
3    "type": "sepa",
4    "country": "FR",
5    "account_number": "FR7630006000011234567890189",
6    "currency": "EUR",
7    "mandate_id": "123456",
8    "date_of_signature": "2022-08-22",
9    "account_holder": {
10      "first_name": "Ali",
11      "last_name": "Farid",
12      "billing_address": {
13        "address_line1": "Rue Exemple",
14        "address_line2": "1",
15        "city": "Paris",
16        "zip": "75000",
17        "country": "FR"
18      }
19    }
20  },
21  "payment_type": "Regular",
22  "amount": 10000,
23  "currency": "EUR",
24  "processing_channel_id": "pc_xyz",
25  "success_url": "https://example.com/payments/success",
26  "failure_url": "https://example.com/payments/failure"
27}

If you receive a 202 Accepted response with a status field set to Pending, your request was successful.


1{
2  "id": "pay_ukzxtgobaoiu7l3gm2x6qxirru",
3  "status": "Pending",
4  "source": {
5    "id": "src_3ycibaogn7gexoo4p7i6jmitz4",
6    "type": "sepa"
7  },
8  "_links": {
9    "self": {
10      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments/pay_ukzxtgobaoiu7l3gm2x6qxirru"
11    },
12    "succeed": {
13      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/apms/sepa/payments/pay_ukzxtgobaoiu7l3gm2x6qxirru/finalize/Accepted"
14    },
15    "decline": {
16      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/apms/sepa/payments/pay_ukzxtgobaoiu7l3gm2x6qxirru/finalize/Rejected"
17    }
18  }
19}

You can retrieve details about an existing SDD Core payment with the following endpoint.

For the full API specification, see the API reference.

get

https://api.checkout.com/payments/{id}


1{
2  "id": "pay_ukzxtgobaoiu7l3gm2x6qxirru",
3  "requested_on": "2023-03-24T07:43:12.9792854Z",
4  "source": {
5    "id": "src_wmlfc3zyhqzehihu7giusaaawu",
6    "type": "sepa"
7  },
8  "amount": 10000,
9  "currency": "EUR",
10  "payment_type": "Recurring",
11  "status": "Pending",
12  "processing": {
13    "partner_payment_id": "GA3OX32ASX3E5A7"
14  },
15  "_links": {
16    "self": {
17      "href": "https://api.checkout.com/payments/pay_ihrxjxcbjegeliqmdr72lby2aq"
18    },
19    "actions": {
20      "href": "https://api.checkout.com/payments/pay_ihrxjxcbjegeliqmdr72lby2aq/actions"
21    }
22  }
23}

You can partially or fully refund a payment through the Dashboard or the Refund API if:

it has been seven or more days since the original payment date
the payment status is captured

When you request a refund, you’ll receive a payment_refund_pending webhook.

If the refund is successfully sent and approved by the SDD network, you’ll receive a payment_refunded webhook. The payment status will also be updated to refunded or partially_refunded.

Information

If you plan to issue a refund, you should communicate this to the customer to prevent them from simultaneously canceling the payment with their bank. If the customer is credited twice, contact them directly to resolve the situation.

If the refund is declined by the SDD network or the customer’s bank, you'll receive a payment_refund_declined webhook.

Customers have the ability to reverse a payment made against an SDD Core mandate up to eight weeks after the original payment date.

The customer may submit a claim with their bank to reverse the payment if:

they want to revoke the direct debit authorization
they state that they did not provide authorization for the direct debit

If a customer initiates a return, you’ll receive a payment_returned webhook notification.

SDD Core reversals initiated by the customer cannot be challenged. The funds will always be returned to the customer. If you have issues with a reversal, contact your customer directly.

Information

You can initiate a reversal for a payment made against an SDD Core mandate that has not been authorized up to 13 months after the original payment date.

During an SDD Core payment's lifecycle, you may receive the following webhooks:

Webhook	Description
`payment_pending`	The bank accepted the payment request.
`payment_rejected`	The bank declined the payment request due to a technical or fraud-related issue.
`payment_returned`	There was a failure after an initial success scenario. Money will be moved out the merchant's account. There are three types of returns: post-settlement return – can occur up to five days after the initial capture authorized refund – can occur up to eight weeks after the initial capture unauthorized disputes – can occur up to 13 months after the initial capture
`payment_captured`	The bank successfully received confirmation from the SEPA network and the funds have been transferred.
`refund_accepted`	The bank successfully received confirmation from the SEPA network and the funds have been transferred.
`refund_declined`	The bank declined the payment request due to a technical or fraud-related issue.

The following table lists the response codes you may receive when you process SDD Core payments:

Response code	Description
`20014`	Invalid account number.
`20018`	Customer dispute.
`20051`	Insufficient funds.
`30001`	Direct debit forbidden on this account for regulatory reasons.
`30002`	Payment transaction code incorrect, or sequence error.
`30005`	Creditor Identifier incorrect.
`30006`	Creditor Bank is not registered under this BIC in the CSM.
`30008`	No valid mandate or unauthorized transaction.
`30009`	Disputed authorized transaction.
`30010`	The debtor refuses this particular collection. This code may be received pre- or post-settlement, depending on how quickly the debtor bank responds to the refusal.
`30011`	Not Specified Reason Agent Generated.
`30012`	Bank Identifier incorrect.
`30013`	Specification of Debtor name or address required for regulatory requirements is insufficient or missing.
`30014`	Creditor name or address required for regulatory requirements is insufficient or missing.
`30025`	Regulatory Reason.
`30026`	The request clashes with specific instructions your customer has added to their account. For example, they may have added the creditor to a blocklist, or not explicitly added them to an allowlist.
`30027`	Duplicate entry.
`30046`	Account closed.
`30047`	Account frozen.
`300BS`	Rejected.
`300AS`	Returned.

To start testing, contact your Account Manager or Implementation Engineer to enable SDD Core payments in the sandbox environment.

To perform a test payment, you must generate a valid IBAN using an online IBAN generator.

post

https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments


1{
2  "source": {
3    "type": "sepa",
4    "country": "FR",
5    "account_number": "FR7630006000011234567890189",
6    "currency": "EUR",
7    "mandate_id": "123456",
8    "date_of_signature": "2023-04-21",
9    "account_holder": {
10      "first_name": "Ali",
11      "last_name": "Farid",
12      "billing_address": {
13        "address_line1": "Rue Exemple",
14        "address_line2": "1",
15        "city": "Paris",
16        "zip": "75000",
17        "country": "FR"
18      }
19    }
20  },
21  "reference": "Test Reference",
22  "payment_type": "Regular",
23  "amount":1000,
24  "currency": "EUR",
25  "processing_channel_id":  "pc_xyz",
26  "success_url": "https://example.com/payments/success",
27  "failure_url": "https://example.com/payments/failure",
28  "description": "Test description",
29  "billing_descriptor": {
30    "name": "Test billing descriptor",
31    "city": "Paris",
32    "reference": "Test billing descriptor reference"
33  }
34}


1{
2  "id": "pay_d7mgufw7cjuebp6hs25j27onom",
3  "status": "Pending",
4  "reference": "Test Regular Payment SEPA 23.06.2023",
5  "source": {
6    "id": "src_tko5xm22x7aetihg6befv5p7me",
7    "type": "sepa"
8  },
9  "_links": {
10    "self": {
11      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments/pay_d7mgufw7cjuebp6hs25j27onom"
12    },
13    "succeed": {
14      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/apms/sepa/payments/pay_d7mgufw7cjuebp6hs25j27onom/finalize/Accepted"
15    },
16    "decline": {
17      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/apms/sepa/payments/pay_d7mgufw7cjuebp6hs25j27onom/finalize/Rejected"
18    }
19  }
20}

To perform a test payment with a payment instrument, you must first create the test instrument using the following endpoint:

post

https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/instruments

In your request, use your client ID as the merchant_identifier value.


1{
2  "type": "sepa",
3  "instrument_data": {
4    "country": "FR",
5    "account_number": "FR7630006000011234567890189",
6    "currency": "EUR",
7    "payment_type": "Regular"
8  },
9  "account_holder": {
10    "first_name": "Ali",
11    "last_name": "Farid",
12    "billing_address": {
13      "address_line1": "Rue Exemple",
14      "address_line2": "1",
15      "city": "Paris",
16      "zip": "7500",
17      "country": "FR"
18    }
19  },
20  "merchant_identifier": "cli_xyz"
21}


1{
2  "type": "sepa",
3  "id": "src_bvql42klnjve7nrcgix66lconq",
4  "fingerprint": "kbzfhm3mxiuedjgi6ceb2tdcuy"
5}

To perform a test payment with the payment instrument, in your payment request:

set source.type to id
set source.id to the id value returned in the
post
Create a payment instrument response

Payments automatically move through different states during processing. For example, the status may change from approved to refunded. When testing payment flows, you can manually change the status of a test payment to simulate different scenarios.

To change a test payment status:

Create a test payment as shown in the Perform a test payment section.
You receive a response with the following _links object:


1{
2  "_links": {
3      "succeed": {
4        "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/apms/sepa/payments/pay_d7mgufw7cjuebp6hs25j27onom/finalize/Accepted"
5      },
6      "decline": {
7        "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/apms/sepa/payments/pay_d7mgufw7cjuebp6hs25j27onom/finalize/Rejected"
8      }
9    }
10}

Accept the payment by sending a PUT request to the _links.succeed.href URL.
After accepting the payment, you receive a response with the following _links object: Payments automatically move through different states during processing. For example, the status may change from approved to refunded. When testing payment flows, you can manually change the status of a test payment to simulate different scenarios.

To change a test payment status:

Create a test payment as shown in the Perform a test payment section.
You receive a response with the following _links object:


1{
2  "_links": {
3      "succeed": {
4        "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/apms/sepa/payments/pay_d7mgufw7cjuebp6hs25j27onom/finalize/Accepted"
5      },
6      "decline": {
7        "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/apms/sepa/payments/pay_d7mgufw7cjuebp6hs25j27onom/finalize/Rejected"
8      }
9    }
10}

Accept the payment by sending a PUT request to the _links.succeed.href URL.
After accepting the payment, you receive a response with the following _links object:


1{
2  "_links": {
3    "reject": {
4      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/apms/sepa/payments/pay_pprqxl2py3kuxiu5qhtjk6exxe/finalize/Rejected"
5    },
6    "return": {
7      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/apms/sepa/payments/pay_pprqxl2py3kuxiu5qhtjk6exxe/finalize/Returned"
8    },
9    "chargeback": {
10      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/apms/sepa/payments/pay_pprqxl2py3kuxiu5qhtjk6exxe/finalize/Refunded"
11    },
12    "refund": {
13      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments/pay_pprqxl2py3kuxiu5qhtjk6exxe/refunds"
14    },
15    "actions": {
16      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments/pay_pprqxl2py3kuxiu5qhtjk6exxe/actions"           
17    }
18  }
19}

To simulate a specific action, use the corresponding URL provided in the _links object. For example:
- To return a payment, send a PUT request to the URL specified in _links.return.href.
- To view all previous statuses of the payment, use the _links.actions.href endpoint.

You can also view a list of these actions by calling the Get payment details endpoint, setting the {id} query parameter to the payment_id received in the test payment response.

The SDD Core network blocks refunds until seven days after the original payment was created.

To bypass this restriction in the sandbox environment, use 4815162342 as your mandate ID when you request your test payment or create your test payment instrument.

After you perform the test refund you can finalize and capture it by calling the following endpoint:

put

https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/apms/sepa/{paymentId}/refunds/{refundId}/finalize/accepted

Alternatively, to decline the test refund, call the following endpoint:

put

https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/apms/sepa/{paymentId}/refunds/{refundId}/finalize/rejected

Information

Information

Set up the mandate

Information

Information

Creditor ID

Create a mandate ID

Information

Request example

Response example

Information

Send a pre-notification

Information

Create a SEPA payment source (optional)

Create a payment source before your first payment

Request example

Response example

Create a payment source with your first payment request

Request example

Response example

Request a payment

Request example

Response example

Get details about a payment

Response example

Refund a payment

Information

Process a payment return

Information

Webhooks

Response codes

Perform a test payment

Request example

Response example

Perform a test payment with a payment instrument

Request example

Response example

Transition a test payment's status

Perform a test refund