The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is an European Union initiative to enable direct debit Euro payments across all member countries. Checkout.com supports two types of direct debits:
- SEPA Core Direct Debit
- SEPA B2B Direct Debit
SEPA Core
This is designed for collecting payments from both consumers and businesses. This method is widely used for regular bills, subscriptions, and other recurring payments, giving your customers the right to a refund for authorized transactions within eight weeks.
SEPA B2B
This is designed for business-to-business (B2B) transactions. It's an efficient way for companies to collect both one-off and recurring payments (like subscriptions) from bank accounts across SEPA countries, without needing individual bank agreements.
Main differences
Both types of direct debit require your customer’s written consent via a mandate before you can debit funds from their accounts. The main difference is how the mandate is checked:
With SEPA Core Direct Debit, the bank only confirms that you have a mandate. Customers can request a refund for any authorized transaction within eight weeks of the debit, and within 13 months if the payment was taken without a valid mandate.
For SEPA B2B, the bank runs a more detailed check of the mandate’s content and requires a copy. Because of this thorough check, B2B payments cannot be refunded.
See our SEPA Direct Debit documentation for more information.