FastPay: Direct Debit the Easy Way

How can FastPay help you? FastPay offers a Facilities Management service that collects Direct Debits on behalf of your business or organisation.

FastPay helps its clients access the power of Direct Debit without the formidable expense and time required to set up their own scheme.

With a flat fee of only 50p per collection, FastPay is cheaper than almost any other banking method.

FastPay has achieved a sterling reputation with its sponsoring bank and will sort out all the formalities on your behalf. We will then assign a personalised OIN/SUN (Service User Number) to your company which will identify you to your customers when they view their bank statements.

We will process all your collections on the date of your choosing with minimum involvement from your end. We will inform you of any bounced or cancelled Direct Debits as soon as they occur. We even offer a service to write to your customers with regard to any irregularities or changes to their payment schedule, including bounces and cancellations.

Bounced payments can be automatically recharged and cancelled Direct Debits can be reinstated without any involvement from you.

So just put your feet up and let FastPay do all the work,whilst you watch your bank balance magically increase.

The first time you add a new payer:

1.	You, the client, send FastPay the information of your new payer.
2.	FastPay gives the payer's bank five days notice that there is a new Direct Debit.
3.	Once the details of the new payer have been lodged with the payer’s bank, FastPay may debit the payer’s account anytime as long as the payer has been given five days notice and has raised no objection.
4.	FastPay receives the money into a client trust account three days after the instruction has been sent.
5.	If the Payer has insufficient funds in their account to cover the demand, the amount collected from that payer will be reversed on day four and you will be informed accordingly.
6.	Cleared funds are transferred to the client’s account on day five.
7.	Once your client is on the FastPay system, the payments go through automatically on the frequency you specify – weekly, monthly, quarterly or even annually.

What happens when payments bounce?

1.	FastPay will receive an email from BACS as soon as this occurs.
2.	FastPay will inform you, the client, on the same day.
3.	We can offer to write to your client giving them five days notice of an automatic recharge to their nominated account. Our experience has shown that this is normally honoured.

Why Use FastPay
You can, of course, apply to become a Direct Debit Service User (or Originator) yourself, provided your company has a suitably long trading history, you have an excellent relationship with your bank, and you are willing and able to provide your bank with sufficient securities.

Direct Debits can be collected only by companies that are BACS approved 'Originators' who are subject to stringent vetting procedures and have placed indemnity guarantees through their banks. Under the BACS Direct Debit Rules and Regulations, your bank must agree to be the sponsor who will take responsibility for your Direct Debit activities. Many businesses and organisations will fail to obtain approval from their banks because of the high risk and stringent criteria.

Furthermore, the application process, related costs, time-scale to implementation and other operational costs after setup (BACS software and Direct Debit Management software from approved suppliers) is lengthy and costly. You can generally expect total costs in the region of £5,000 to £10,000 plus annual licence fees and maintenance normally equivalent to 15% to 20% of the software costs.

Finally, you will be required to have your staff trained to use the scheduling and communications software and be proficient in the knowledge of all the Direct Debit Rules and Regulations. You will have to ensure that you always have sufficiently trained members of staff to do your collections on time. Staff sickness or holidays could present a problem due to the special skills required to manage the Direct Debit Scheme.