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Direct Debit for alarm monitoring contracts with GoCardless

GoCardless collects monthly monitoring and maintenance fees by Direct Debit, so you stop chasing small invoices. Fees for 250 customers: about $150£113€134A$217C$212 a month.

At a glance

  • What it costs$150£113€134A$217C$212 a month

  • Worth, in extra profit or time saved in the worked example$366£275€327A$528C$517 a month

  • Pays for itselfIn about two weeks

  • Sign up and configure; no technical skills neededEasy to set up

Figures come from the worked example below, using its stated assumptions. Tool prices checked . How we check prices

The problem

Monitored alarm customers pay small monthly fees by standing order or invoice, and the money drifts: a canceled standing order, an ignored invoice. With 250 customers, matching payments and chasing 30 late ones takes about 9 hours a month, and a few quietly stop paying while you keep paying the receiving center.

What the AI does

GoCardless collects one-off or recurring payments from customers' bank accounts by Direct Debit, with a fee per transaction and no monthly subscription. Each customer signs a mandate once, and you collect their monthly fee on the agreed date. Failed payments show up straight away, so you can act before a customer is months behind.

A worked example

An alarm installer in Wolverhampton has 250 customers paying $33£25€30A$48C$47 a month for monitoring and maintenance. It moves them from standing orders and invoices to Direct Debit with GoCardless over 3 months.

Before

About 9 hours a month matching payments (4 hours) and chasing 30 late invoices (5 hours); about 3 customers a month stop paying unnoticed

After

Payments collected on the agreed date; about 1 hour a month dealing with failures

What it's worth

About $366£275€327A$528C$517 a month: 8 hours saved at an assumed $33£25€30A$48C$47 an hour ($266£200€238A$384C$376), plus about $100£75€89A$144C$141 a month in fees that used to go unpaid. GoCardless Standard is 1% + 20p a payment, about 45p on $33£25€30A$48C$47 so about $150£113€134A$217C$212 a month for 250 customers, excluding VAT.

How to set it up

  1. Check your contracts allow you to change how customers pay, and give notice of the change.
  2. Sign up for GoCardless and send each customer a link to set up their mandate.
  3. Collect on the same date each month and tell customers what to expect.
  4. Check failed payments every collection day and contact the customer the same week.
  5. Keep a short list of customers who won't use Direct Debit and invoice them separately.

What goes wrong

  • Per-payment fees add up on small amounts; on $33£25€30A$48C$47 the 20p fixed part is most of the fee. Compare annual collection for customers who'd rather pay yearly.
  • GoCardless's Advanced and Pro plans include Success+, which recovers failed payments automatically, at a higher fee per payment; Standard doesn't.
  • Stopping monitoring for non-payment needs a clear process in your contract; a cut-off alarm is a risk for everyone.
  • Moving 250 customers takes time. Expect some to need a phone call.

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Last updated October 17, 2026.