SEPA Direct Debit - a guide to e-Mandates and best practices

Written by Marcus Ratcliff and Janka Bergner
30 September 2025

What is SEPA Direct Debit?

SEPA Direct Debit provides a straightforward way to accept bank payments from your customers, using an IBAN (International Bank Account Number). It enables businesses and individuals within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) to collect Euro-denominated payments from bank accounts across 36 European countries, using a standardized process. It is widely used for one-off and recurring payments such as subscriptions, utility bills, insurance premiums, and more.

The SEPA scheme sets the rules for processing and settling payments and this article aims to provide an overview.

Summary of key features

• Pan-European reach:
  Collect payments in Euros from any SEPA-participating country using a single bank account and standardized process.

• Automated recurring payments:
  Ideal for subscriptions, memberships and regular billing cycles.

• Standardized processing:
  Processes are harmonized across SEPA, reducing complexity and costs for cross-border Euro payments.

• CORE scheme support:
  There are two SEPA Direct Debit schemes, the CORE and B2B scheme. We support the CORE scheme, which has a four-day mandated settlement period for initial, one-off and recurring payments.

• Mandate-based authorization:
  The payer (customer) provides a signed mandate authorizing the payee (merchant) to debit their account.

e-Mandates

As part of SEPA scheme rules, you must create an e-Mandate to demonstrate that your customer consents to the payment.

Creditor identifier, name and address

Creditor information is mandatory and you must display this to your customer when the SEPA Direct Debit e-Mandate is present. We act as the creditor and collect SEPA Direct Debit payments on your behalf.

Display the following creditor information on your payment page:

• Creditor Identifier: GB30ZZZSDDSELN00000031394541WPAY
• Creditor Name: Worldpay Ltd
• Creditor Address: Walbrook Building, London, EC4N 8AF

Consent

Your customer must accept the e-Mandate using a tickbox.

You must display the official wording below to constitute a SEPA-compliant mandate and so your customer can agree to be debited. Without this, your customer can easily reverse the direct debit with their bank:

By signing this mandate form, you authorise (A) Worldpay to send instructions to your bank to debit your account and (B) your bank to debit your account in accordance with the instructions from Worldpay. As part of your rights, you are entitled to a refund from your bank under the terms and conditions of your agreement with your bank. A refund must be claimed within 8 weeks starting from the date on which your account was debited. Your rights are explained in a statement that you can obtain from your bank.

Mandate IDs

Each SEPA Direct Debit e-Mandate must have a unique mandate identifier (mandateId). This identifies each e-Mandate signed by your customer.

Requirements for mandateId:

• Maximum 35 characters
• SEPA character requirements:
  • letters A to Z (case insensitive)
  • numbers 0 to 9
  • special characters: + ? / - : ( ) . , ’
  • spaces
• Must be unique by creditor (in this case Worldpay), per SEPA regulations

Format for mandate IDs

mandateIds must be unique by creditor. Use an e-Mandate prefix assigned by Worldpay as part of your mandateId.

Format:
M-<your merchant number assigned by Worldpay>-<a unique reference assigned by you>

Example:
M-123456789-A79ZH34KJZ

• the prefix M, which tells us the mandateId was created by you
• unique 9-digit merchant number, assigned by us (available from your Implementation Manager)
• your reference, which must be specifically unique for each new e-Mandate (letters, numbers, hyphens only)

Best practice and recommendations

We have also put together some guidelines to optimize your use of SEPA Direct Debit and avoid costly mistakes.

General

• Do not dispatch goods or provide services for five business days after the transaction settlement.
  This minimizes the risk of loss if the payment is later reversed. Inform your customer about delivery timelines to manage their expectations.
  

• Know Your Customer (KYC).
  For a high Average Transaction Value (ATV) payments, check your customer's credit score before offering SEPA DD. The customer's bank can reverse settled transactions, and customers may also charge back after you have dispatched goods/services. Liaise with your customer and/or use local debit collection agencies to recover funds if needed.

• Recurring transactions.
  Agree with your customer to send reminders of upcoming direct debits. Notify your customer of payment collection two weeks in advance (or a shorter period if agreed). This is known as pre-notification of a direct debit.

• Retry mechanism.
  Failed payments are not retried automatically. Payments can be retried up to three times.

• Submission timing.

  • For one-off or first-in-series payments, you must submit the direct debit request at least one business day before the payment due/execution date.
  • For subsequent collections, you must submit the direct debit request two business days before the payment due date.

• Returned transactions.
  For transactions returned with status SETTLEMENT_REVERSED, use this status to improve acceptance by identifying and resubmitting these non-chargeback returned transactions.

Refunds

Refunds for SEPA Direct Debit transactions are not part of the SEPA Direct Debit scheme. Refunds are an additional in-house functionality provided by us. Note that:

• the customer already has extensive rights under the scheme
• the customer's bank cannot link the refund transaction to the original SEPA DD transaction; linkage occurs only within Worldpay's system
• the customer could chargeback with their bank and also request a refund from you. If this happens, the bank treats these as separate, unrelated transactions

We recommend that you:

• only offer refunds when absolutely necessary
• only refund customers who have been thoroughly KYC'd, and for recurring transactions only
• inform your customers about expected refund timelines (e.g., three business days) to reduce chargeback risk

Airlines and travel companies

If you are an airline or travel company:

• do not offer SEPA DD if your customer will travel less than 10 business days after making a SEPA DD payment
• there remains a chargeback risk even after your customer has traveled

Find our integration guide here and if you have any further questions, please contact your Implementation Manager.