Bank debits—such as ACH Direct Debit, Bacs Direct Debit, BECS Direct Debit, pre-authorized debits in Canada, and SEPA Direct Debit—can lower transaction costs, reduce payment failures, and decrease the risk of fraud and chargebacks. Direct debits vary by country, but most are used by businesses collecting recurring payments and by retail and services companies that want a low-cost alternative to cards for large payments, like rent or tuition.

Unlike bank credit transfers or wire payments that require customers to initiate the payment from their bank account, bank debits allow a business to directly pull funds from the customer’s account (with their permission). For example, a B2B software company could automatically collect their monthly $3,000 subscription fee from a customer. The company would get the customer’s permission to debit their account, allowing them to pull funds for future payments without requiring the customer to authorize each subsequent payment.

This guide covers the basics of bank debits. You’ll learn how they work, how to choose a provider, and how Stripe can help.

How bank debits work

Bank debits are typically presented as one payment option during checkout, alongside credit cards and other payment methods. To initiate a bank debit, customers enter their bank account details, such as their name and address. Most importantly, customers have to give you permission to debit their account, referred to as a “mandate” or “authorization.” This allows you to automatically pull funds from their account. Some bank debit methods also require you to notify customers of future payments in advance.

Payment flow for bank debits

要发起直接借记付款，您需要向银行或通过支付服务商提交借记请求。请求处理后，资金将在两到六个工作日内结算。

银行借记方式发生争议的可能性要低得多，因为客户需要提前同意授权书来授权付款。然而，与信用卡相比，争议政策通常对商家不太有利：一些银行借记方案会尊重所有客户争议并从商家处扣回资金，而另一些则只允许客户针对错误或未经授权的付款提出争议。

即时验证与小额存款验证的区别

在扣款之前，建议（有时也是要求）您验证结账时输入的银行账户信息，以防止欺诈并减少支付失败。在美国和加拿大，您可以通过即时验证服务即时完成，或者通过小额存款手动完成。

即时验证服务允许您在几秒钟内验证客户的银行账户。在结账流程中，客户会收到提示，选择其银行机构并输入账户凭证以验证账户。客户可以完全在您的结账体验中完成此验证流程。

而小额存款则需要您手动向客户的银行账户发送两笔小额存款。这些小额存款转账可能需要一到两个工作日才能到账。到账后，客户会收到一个链接来验证小额存款的金额。这可以确认您的客户确实能够访问该银行账户及其中的资金。

提升银行借记安全性和可靠性的其他方法

虽然银行账户验证对于确认账户有效且合法很重要，但您可能还需要使用额外的防护措施来防范欺诈和支付失败。

例如，某些验证服务允许您在发起扣款前检查客户账户余额，以确保交易资金充足。您还可以获取银行账户所有者的信息（如姓名和地址），以确认其与您掌握的付款客户信息一致。这有助于防止因登录凭证被盗而导致的欺诈，并减少因未经授权扣款而产生的高额争议。

即使您的企业已验证了银行账户并确认了账户所有者的信息，您可能仍希望防范那些以欺诈为目的开设合法银行账户的欺诈者。某些即时验证解决方案还可以帮助您了解接受来自可疑活动模式账户的扣款所面临的风险。例如，您可能会标记一笔来自新开账户的付款，该账户通过几笔大额电汇入账，然后立即被用于在奢侈品零售商处进行大额消费。

采取这些额外措施有助于提高银行借记的安全性和可靠性，而这些措施通常通过即时验证银行账户而非小额存款来实现。

银行借记的优势

银行借记允许您重复使用客户的支付凭证，按照自定义的时间表发起付款，而无需客户采取任何行动。通过提供银行借记，您可以：

• 减少支付失败和非自愿流失：银行借记从客户银行账户中扣款，无需客户进一步操作。而且，与信用卡不同，银行账户不会过期或被注销，从而降低了支付失败率，并防止了经常性收入业务的非自愿流失。

• 降低欺诈和拒付风险：一般来说，客户认证水平越高，欺诈和有争议支付的可能性就越低。除了要求客户授权外，银行借记的银行账户验证也有助于最大限度地减少欺诈支付。

• 降低交易成本：不同的支付方式有不同的成本结构，有些方式因覆盖信用风险而产生更高的费用。银行借记通过银行网络路由，有助于降低交易费用。

风险管理的最佳实践

虽然银行借记可以帮助成功收取更多付款并降低成本，但对某些类型的企业来说可能并不合适。与信用卡不同，银行借记可能需要几天时间才能确认付款，因此这可能会给那些在付款发起后几天内就交付商品或服务的企业带来收入风险（大多数支付失败发生在头五天内）。为尽量减少潜在损失，建议在付款发起后至少等待五天再交付商品或服务，并与客户明确沟通付款条款。

当您对一笔借记付款进行退款时，该退款有时会以贷记形式存入客户的银行账户。这意味着即使退款已发出，客户仍可能看到并对原始借记付款提出争议。因此，与客户沟通您是否已发起退款以及退款的时间安排非常重要。

全球银行借记方式比较

通过查看下方 Stripe 支持的选项介绍，查找相关的银行借记方式。您还可以通过访问管理平台查看您的账户支持哪些支付方式。

Learn about Stripe’s pricing for bank debit payment methods.

ACH Direct Debit

Direct debit payments on the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network, or ACH Direct Debit, allow you to collect funds from your customers’ US bank accounts. The ACH network processed more than 14 billion debit transactions in 2019.

Start accepting ACH Direct Debit

Bacs Direct Debits

Bacs Direct Debits is a bank transfer payment method that accounts for 14% of the market share in the United Kingdom. It is also the most popular method for sending and receiving recurring payments. In fact, 90% of UK customers use Bacs Direct Debit to pay some or all of their regular bills and recurring payments.

Start accepting Bacs Direct Debit

BECS Direct Debit

Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS) is an Australia-based payment method administered by the Australian Payments Network for electronic debit and credit payment instructions. It accounted for 19% of non-cash transaction value in Australia in 2018.

Start accepting BECS Direct Debit

Pre-authorized debits

Pre-authorized debits (PADs) are used to collect direct debit payments from customers in Canada. In 2019, more than C$876 billion was processed through bank debits. There are strict requirements about what needs to be mentioned in the PADs agreement to authorize a transaction.

Start accepting pre-authorized payments

SEPA Direct Debit

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is an initiative of the European Union to simplify payments within and across member countries. They established and enforced banking standards to allow for the direct debiting of every Euro-denominated bank account within the SEPA region, facilitating more than 20 billion transactions every year. In some European countries, such as Germany, SEPA Direct Debit is more popular than cards for online transactions.

Start accepting SEPA Direct Debit

How Stripe can help

Companies around the world use Stripe to accept multiple payment methods—including bank debits—and simplify global operations. Stripe makes it possible to accept direct debit options in minutes with a single integration. Stripe offers:

Fast and seamless integration options

The entire Stripe product suite comes with built-in global payment support so you can create the most relevant payment experiences for your customers.

• Stripe’s Payments API makes it easy to support multiple payment methods through a single integration. This leaves you with a unified and elegant integration that involves minimal development time and remains easy to maintain, regardless of which payment methods you choose to implement. Bank debits on Stripe also work with Stripe Billing to automate your recurring billing workflow.

• Supporting diverse payments experiences for global customers is even easier with Stripe Checkout, Payment Element, and Invoicing. With any of these UIs, you can add payment methods with one click in your Stripe Dashboard and rely on Stripe to dynamically display the right payment methods and language based on IP, browser locale, cookies, and other signals.

• Platforms and marketplaces can use Stripe Connect to accept money and pay out to third parties. Your sellers or service providers benefit from the same streamlined Stripe onboarding and get instant access to select payment methods.

Built-in instant verification

ACH Direct Debit and pre-authorized debits on Stripe come with built-in instant verification, as well as hosted micro-deposit verification as a fallback. This makes it easy to verify bank accounts without having to integrate with a third-party service. Customers simply input their banking credentials, and their accounts are verified in seconds.

In addition to instantly verifying bank accounts for ACH Direct Debit, Stripe Financial Connections also lets your customers securely share their financial data with you. This can help you minimize payment failures and fraud by confirming bank account balances and ownership before initiating debits.

合规性

除了内置的验证选项外，Stripe 还会为您处理授权书收集和借记通知邮件的发送，让您轻松遵守借记方案的规则。授权书和通知会自动反映您指定的付款条款。

无需文书工作

符合条件的企业可以在几分钟内通过 Stripe 接受任意这些银行借记选项——无需额外的申请、入驻流程或审核流程即可开始使用。您可以通过访问管理平台了解自己符合哪些银行借记选项的资格。

一体化的监控与报告

使用包括银行借记在内的任何支付方式完成的付款，都会显示在 Stripe 管理平台中，从而降低运营复杂性，简化财务对账流程。这使您能够为订单履行、客户支持和退款等常规操作制定标准化的流程。

要了解有关通过 Stripe 支持银行借记的更多信息，请阅读我们的文档或联系我们的销售团队。要立即开始接受付款，请注册账户。