

YC Alum GoCardless Raises Another $7M - hirokitakeuchi
http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/28/yc-alum-gocardless-raises-another-7m-aims-to-be-the-stripe-of-direct-debit-payments/

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tomgallard
We're using GoCardless at Pwinty to bill our UK based merchants- works really
smoothly, and much cheaper than collecting via debit card or PayPal as we have
to do in the rest of the world. 

Best of luck to them- especially after hearing they're rolling out to Europe
as well- exciting times! 

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hackerboos
The biggest obstacle to GoCardless in my opinion is failed Direct Debit
charges from banks. 

As a consumer, if I use GoCardless to buy a product and there are not enough
funds in my account I'm charged by my bank up to £35 ($58). 

If a Debit Card payment fails then I'm charged nothing. 

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greghinch
It's also a challenge for merchants, because the fact that the payment fails
may not be known for up to 5 days.  I would love to see if GoCardless could do
something with the FasterPayments system as well, which processes in a matter
of hours. 

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hirokitakeuchi
We'd love to speed up the Direct Debit system - unfortunately that isn't
likely though.  That is why we focus on recurring payments, where merchants are
able to time the payments in advance. 

If Faster Payments opens up, we are well placed to adopt it.. It's on the
banks & regulators to open it up though (current access is closed).  Watch this
space! 

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acjohnson55
Is there something similar to this in the US?  A startup idea I have could do
with an all-electronic replacement for certified bank checks. 

~~~
mjallday
Check out dwolla or balanced.