BECS direct debit in Australia

Enabling BECS allows donors to provide the information for their Australian bank accounts online and approve bank-to-bank direct debit transfers.

This article will walk you through the needed steps to enable BECS in Fundraise Up, including the steps in Stripe to ensure that transactions are processed and handled appropriately. Additionally, it will explain the donor experience when giving via BECS on your public donation checkout.

Enabling BECS in Stripe

In order for BECS to work properly in Fundraise Up, it must be enabled in Stripe.

  • Go to your Stripe dashboard,
  • Click Settings,
  • Scroll down and click Payment Methods,
  • Choose to enable BECS Direct Debit.

Disable Stripe's BECS Emails

Stripe has a series of emails to assist with account verification and payment confirmation, which are unnecessary if you're using our BECS solution as we allow you to customize versions of those emails right from Fundraise Up. To disable Stripe's BECS debit emails:

  • Go to your Stripe dashboard,
  • Click Settings,
  • Scroll down to "Business settings", and under "Your business", click Emails,
  • In the Customer emails section, toggle "Debit emails" off.

Failure to disable the Stripe BECS email set will result in the donor receiving two sets of emails that will contain differing content.

Enable BECS in Fundraise Up

If your Fundraise Up account is connected to a UK Stripe account, the Payment Options screen will provide options for the enabling of BECS. You can enable BECS by following these steps:

  • Go to the Fundraise Up dashboard,
  • Click your name in the top right, and choose Settings from the dropdown menu,
  • Click Payment Method in the left hand menu,
  • Click Enable for BECS (Australian Direct Debit),
  • Confirm that you've done the following, as instructed on the setup screen and as covered above:
    • disabled Stripe's default BECS emails,
    • and enabled BECS within Stripe,
  • Click the Enable BECS button to start allowing donors with Australian bank accounts to donate directly from those bank accounts using your Fundraise Up forms!

Review how your donors will pay with BECS

When a donor gets to the Payment Options screen of checkout, as long as their donation is 2 AUD or higher (which most donations will be, as Campaign's default minimum amount is 5 AUD), they'll be provided a Direct Debit button.

If they click the button to pay via BECS, they'll be taken to a screen where they can provide their BSB Number and Account Number.

This experience is mirrored in Virtual Terminal; for donations made in AUD, you can select Bank Account as the payment method and provide the donor's BSB Number and Account Number to instantiate their payment via BECS.

Payment processor fees on BECS donations are 1% + A$0.30  with an A$3.50 cap and are A$2.50 for failures and disputes.

Customize Confirmation and Verification Emails

When donors make BECS donations, they'll by default receive some of the Email Templates you can manage and customize from your Fundraise Up account, centrally from the Email Templates screen of Settings, and on a per-Campaign basis using the controls in each Campaign's Emails tab.

Donors giving via BECS will first receive their "Donation in progress" email showing the details of the bank payment mandate they approved while donating.

For BECS donors, the "Donation in progress" email template specifically includes legal text (sourced from Stripe) below their agreement, outlining what the donor is entitled to with regards to their BECS payment. To see this text, go to the Email Templates page of Settings, click "Donation in progress" in the left hand menu, and click the Preview button.

Donors will only receive the applicable "Receipt" email templates once their Donation succeeds, which can only be done once Stripe lets Fundraise Up know that the Donation is past the window where Stripe would have been sent (and passed along) any notifications of payment failure.

So, for new Donations and first Donations of Recurring Plans, receiving the applicable "Receipt" email can take up to 4 business days. For subsequent installments of Recurring Plans, receiving the "Recurring Installment Receipt" email can take up to 3 business days, shorter because the initial authorization was already done.

 

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