Direct Debits move through various statuses in their lifecycle; these are described in this section.

Overview

Successfully processed Direct Debits move through the following statuses: READY FOR EXPORT –> EXPORTED –> ACCEPTED

Please note:

  • Prior to a Direct Debit (DD) payment being passed to the SEPA Clearing system or to the Bacs Service it is given a READY_FOR_EXPORT status.
  • Nuapay combines Direct Debits into a single payments file prior to the collection date.
  • When a DD transaction is added to a payment file its status is updated to EXPORTED (it is transmitted electronically (exported) to an appropriate Clearing mechanism at this point).
  • The DD transaction is exported at least one business day before the collection date (for SEPA) or 2 business days before (for Bacs).
  • The Clearing channel will dispatch the Direct Debit payments to your payers’ banks. If the payers’ banks do not reject the Direct Debit payment, Nuapay will update the Direct Debit status to ACCEPTED on the collection date. This will generally be the final status of a Direct Debit.

Pre-Settlement Rejection/Refusal (SEPA)

Should a payer refuse the Direct Debit payment, or if the account is closed, for example, the Bank will reject the payment. In this case the Direct Debit payment will transition from EXPORTED to REJECTED or REFUSED.

Rejections that occur before the collection date are referred to as Pre-Settlement Rejects.

Post-Settlement Return/Refund

Returns and Refunds can only happen after the collection date and are referred to as Post-settlement R-transactions.

If Nuapay receives a post-settlement ‘R’, the Direct Debit status is update from ACCEPTED to RETURNED or REFUNDED.

Bacs Unpaid Transactions

When a Bacs Direct Debit payment fails i.e. it is not paid by the paying bank, it will be:

  • Returned unpaid to the service user via the Bacs service using ARUDD (Automated Return of Unpaid Direct Debit).
  • Nuapay will update the status of the transaction on receipt of an ARUDD file from Bacs.
  • Returned items will be debited on day 5 or in exceptional circumstances day 6 of the Bacs cycle.

For more on the unpaid cycle for Bacs payments please see the Bacs Service User Guide available on the Bacs site.

All Direct Debit Statuses

Status Description
READY_FOR_EXPORT The Direct Debit payment has been created but has not yet been included in a PAIN.008 (SEPA) or a STD-18 (Bacs)
EXPORTED The payment has been included in a PAIN.008 file (SEPA) or a STD-18 file (Bacs) and has been passed to Clearing. The Direct Debit will generally be exported 2 business days prior to the collection date. The number of days is configurable for SEPA but must be set to 2 for Bacs.
ACCEPTED If there have been no pre-settlement R-transactions the status is updated to Accepted on the settlement date.
REJECTED /REFUSED / CANCELLED If a pre-settlement R-transaction is processed in Nuapay the status will move from Exported to Rejected/Refused/Cancelled
RETURNED/REFUNDED Where a Direct Debit is in Accepted status and a post-settlement R-transaction is processed its status will be updated to Returned/Refunded
RE-PRESENTED Where a direct debit has been Rejected/Refused/Cancelled/Returned/Refunded you may want to re-try to collect the payment. When you re-present the Direct Debit status is updated to Re-presented and a new Ready-for-Export Direct Debit is generated with a new collection date.
REVOKED A Direct Debit that is in READY FOR EXPORT status can be withdrawn before it is dispatched to Clearing so that it isn’t processed. In this case the Direct Debit status is updated to REVOKED.
PENDING The payment is in a pending status. A payment may be in this status where it is created with a mandate and the mandate status is in pending status.