Already a FastSpring seller and want to enable SEPA Direct Debit for your store? Submit a support ticket from inside the platform or from our support portal.

You can learn more about SEPA by reading our blog, How SEPA Direct Debit Payments Help Software Businesses Reach European Buyers.

The Single Euro Payments Area is an EU initiative to create a single market for euro-denominated payments. You can collect direct debit payments from accounts within the supported countries. 

SEPA Direct Debit is a pull-based payment, thus FastSpring’s bank initiates the payment collection. The consumer must accept a mandate that authorizes FastSpring to debit their account. FastSpring automatically generates this mandate, and presents it to customers at checkout.

To ensure a consumer has sufficient funds at the time of payment, FastSpring routes all transactions through a third-party bank verification. Please allow 5-7 days for a consumer’s order to be fulfilled. 

Supported Countries

FastSpring currently supports SEPA payments for consumers in the following countries:

• Austria (AT)
• Belgium (BE)
• Cyprus (CY)
• Denmark (DK)
• Estonia (EE)
• Finland (FI)
• France (FR)
• Germany (DE)
• Greece (GR)
• Ireland (IE)
• Italy (IT)
• Netherlands (NL)
• Portugal (PT)
• Spain (ES)
• Sweden (SE)

FastSpring only displays SEPA as a payment option to customers in these countries. If your storefront does not accept Euro-denominated transactions, FastSpring will not display the SEPA payment option.

If your storefront does not accept Euros, you can edit the availability of currencies to enable SEPA.

Payment Experience

The SEPA payment method is automatically enabled in all Storefronts that support Euros. Customers based in the supported countries may purchase any product or subscription with SEPA. 

At checkout, customers follow the steps in the image below to pay using SEPA:

Timings: Initiation to Completion/Cancellation

SEPA Direct Debit transactions usually take 3 business days before the customer is charged. Once the customer has been charged, it will take an additional 3 business days to complete the order at FastSpring.

Note: The timings are based on the payments being collected as soon as possible. 

SEPA Mandate

The SEPA Direct Debit Mandate is a billing agreement that allows you to collect future payments from a consumer’s bank account. The consumer provides this agreement with the following information:

• Payment Amount
• SEPA Mandate ID
• SEPA Mandate Date
• FastSpring Seller Name
• FastSpring Order Amount
• Product Name
• Creditor Information
• FastSpring Support Contact Information
• SEPA Prenote

If the customer is purchasing a subscription, the mandate should also include subscription billing terms. 

You can access the SEPA Mandate in the order’s details page, or the Fulfillments page. Customers can access it from their invoice, fulfillment email, and Account Management Portal. 

Subscription Rebills

SEPA supports automatic billing for subscriptions. If the associated mandate includes subscription terms, FastSpring can automatically rebill customers when appropriate. You do not need a separate mandate for each rebill. 

Declined Rebills

If a subscription rebill is declined, FastSpring automatically cancels the subscription and notifies the customer. They may add a new payment method through their Account Management Portal prior to deactivation. However, they can no longer use SEPA for that subscription. 

Refunds and Chargebacks

SEPA entitles consumers to “no-questions-asked refunds” up to 8 weeks (56 days) after payment. If they request a refund in that timeframe, their bank will immediately credit them the full refund. Then, the bank will notify FastSpring of the chargeback with a reason code. FastSpring will deduct this from your account. 

For unauthorized transactions, consumers can make a claim and submit supporting evidence to their bank within 13 months of the transaction. 

Webhooks

FastSpring sends the following webhooks for SEPA transactions:

• order.completed: Sent following a successful SEPA transaction.
• order.canceled: Sent following a canceled transaction.
• order.failed: Sent if the information fails an account check, and FastSpring cancels the transaction.