Ubercart GoCardless Client

This module is provided by Seamless-CMS which is a partner of GoCardless.

It integrates the Ubercart e-commerce suite with the GoCardless online payment service. Sites that implement the module are 'clients' of Seamless-CMS, which generates GoCardless payments and debit mandates on behalf of the client site.

Ubercart GoCardless Client enables customers to checkout and make Instant payments using open banking protocol, and/or create debit mandates for generating recurring payments.

The big advantage with GoCardless is that it is generally cheaper than credit/debit card payment services. Fees in the UK are 1% + 20p, compared with Paypal for example which is 3.4% + a flat fee.

Each product in your store is individually configured to use either Instant payments, or one of the two recurring payment types: "One-off" payments, or Subscription payments.

Instant payments are single payments created upon checkout by GoCardless using open banking protocol and do not require a debit mandate. Open banking does not use credit/debit cards but the experience is similar to credit card services in that the customer is required to provide their bank details, and to verify the bank account.

Instant Payments are a newly introduced feature from GoCardless, and are only available with the 7.x-2.x branch of the module. Also they are currently only available to customers with British or German bank accounts.

Subscription and One-off payments both require a direct debit mandate, which is created by GoCardless upon checkout.

Subscriptions are recurring payments that are created automatically by GoCardless according to the rules that you set for the product. Subscriptions work well for users that want to take the same payment on a regular basis (for instance £5 per week, or £20 on the first of each month).

One-off payments are created when your website instructs GoCardless to do so, and are more flexible than Subscription payments. This allows you to charge your end customers ad-hoc amounts. The module allows One-off payment products to be configured so that your website will automatically generate payments for them according to a schedule.

The main disadvantage with debit payments compared with Instant payments, is that it takes several days for them to complete, following an instruction from GoCardless to the bank to create a new mandate, and payment.

As a partner of GoCardless, Seamless CMS receives a percentage of any revenue collected from payments. This arrangement does not cost client sites, or end customers any extra, and it is intended that the income derived here will make the development and maintenance of the module sustainable.

International payment system
GoCardless is an expanding international payment system, and is currently available in 8 currencies and 30+ countries. Currencies supported are GBP, EUR, USD, SEK, AUD, NZD, DKK and CAD.

According to GoCardless their international payment system is 75% cheaper than Paypal, and is also considerable cheaper than Stripe.

The module allows you to collect payments in multiple currencies even if your store only uses a single currency.

Module features:

• Instant Payment checkouts using open banking protocol
• Subscriptions for automatic recurring payments
• One-off payments for client-side ad-hoc payment creation
• Fully configurable pre-defined recurrence rules on a per product basis
• A pre-defined product attribute to allow customers to choose their own recurrence preferences
• Client-side scheduling for recurring One-off payments
• No libraries - easy installation
• Available in an expanding range of currencies and countries - even if your store only uses one currency
• Tools for managing subscriptions and one-off payments within existing orders / mandates
• A range of hooks to allow other modules to alter or react to events, such as mandate or payment creation
• GoCardless webhooks providing complete integration with site and customer mandates