SEPA Direct Debit, also known as European Direct Debit, is the European direct debit system. It allows companies to collect Euro Payments from accounts in 36 SEPA countries and associated territories. SEPA stands for Single Euro Payments Area. This is an initiative of the European Union to make payments within the Eurozone easier and cheaper. Those payments should be just as easy and cheap as domestic payments. With SEPA there is one European payment market.
I want to use SEPA Direct Debit
Which countries are part of SEPA?
Below you can see which countries are part of SEPA. In these countries you can use SEPA Direct Debit for all your Euro payments.
| Andorra | Iceland | Poland |
| Belgium | Italy | Portugal** |
| Bulgaria | Croatia | Romenia |
| Cyprus | Latvia | San Marino |
| Denmark | Liechtenstein | Slovenia |
| Germany | Latvia | Slovakia |
| Estonia | Luxembourg | Spain*** |
| Finland | Malta | Czech Repuplic |
| France* | Monaco | United Kingdom**** |
| Greece | The Netherlands | Sweden |
| Hongaria | Norway | Switzerland |
| Ireland | Austria |
* including Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and Réunion
** including Azores and Madeira
*** including Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla
**** including Gibraltar and Northern Ireland
(Source: ABN Amro)
SEPA Direct Debit collection
Before you can collect money via SEPA Direct Debit, you must first create an authorization together with your customer. In addition, you must send a pre-announcement for each debit, unless the same amount is debited every fixed period. In that case, a single authorization is sufficient. You must send the advance notice at least 14 days before the collection. The payment term for these payments is 14 days, unless you have agreed a shorter period with the customer.
To be able to collect the money, you send a payment request to the bank, together with the mandate. It can take a few working days before you know whether the payment was successful or not. If the payment is successful, it will be credited to your account. Did it not work out? Then you will receive a message from the bank.
Advantages of this system
Advantages of SEPA include that it would lower the cost of payments and increase competition between banks. In addition, it saves you a lot of administrative work and red tape. Do you want to stop worrying about it at all? Then you can also outsource SEPA Direct Debit. We offer a special module for this, as an extension of our debtor management software.
Outsource SEPA Direct Debit
In addition to our software and taking care of your debtor management, we at Debitan would also like to help you with SEPA Direct Debit. We take care of the collection on your account or ours. In the event of cancellations, we take care of the follow-up.
We carry out your direct debits, in small or large numbers, at private individuals and companies in all affiliated countries. Debitan is an excellent tool for flawless collections and tight debtor management.