Direct Debit: Fill & Download for Free

The most German thing ever happens whenever a paid online service launches in Germany.“Why don’t they offer direct debit? I don’t own a f****** credit card and I don’t want one!”Yes, entire forum threads are full of that. Germans loathe credit cards, and Google’s Play Store is the most notorious service for being ignorant to that.

Grey from GoCardless here. It goes without saying that I think GoCardless will be successful. Here's why:Direct Debit is the best solution for recurring paymentsIn the recurring payments space, Direct Debit beats any card-based payment systems hands down. Payments are cheaper because they don't flow through the card networks, and last longer because customers no longer churn due to card expiry. For example, a typical membership organisation's switching to Direct Debit sees their monthly churn due to card expiry fall from 5% to less than 1%.GoCardless has a big head start in Direct DebitThere's no other UK tech company that facilitates payment by Direct Debit, and in the short term it's likely to stay that way. Google, PayPal, and others have a huge amount of card-based infrastructure, and building anything to interact with the Direct Debit system would likely be a distraction for them. At some point they may choose to enter this market, but they have other business pressures to focus on.At the other end of the spectrum, startups face an uphill battle to get started in payments, and particularly with Direct Debit. Doing so requires becoming regulated by the FCA and making a deal with one of the UK's banks to secure access. Neither of those is easy - it took GoCardless a year of trying, backed by significant prior payments expertise.European expansion offers a large, untapped marketDirect Debit is widely adopted as a payment method across Europe, but until recently each country had its own, idiosyncratic Direct Debit scheme. Integrating with a payments system for each individual country is costly, so the ubiquity of cards gave them an edge for international businesses.SEPA Direct Debit is changing that, and GoCardless is well positioned to take advantage. From February 2014 there will be one Direct Debit scheme for the entire Euro area, and you'll be able to collect payments from anywhere in Europe through GoCardless.GoCardless has a phenomenal teamFinally, it's worth saying that a company essentially boils down to its people, and the team at GoCardless is extremely impressive. I back them to keep solving hard problems, whatever they are, and to relentlessly push GoCardless forwards.

Around 26 million households have a TV Licence out of 28 million households in total in the UK.People pay for many reasons, but mainly because:They don’t like lying about whether they have a TVThey consider it reasonable that the BBC is fundedThey are worried that they would be fined or prosecuted if the didn’t payThey set up a Direct Debit and have never considered cancelling itEvasion rates for the licence fee run at around 5–7%.The licence fee is not unusual in Europe, though only Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the UK have a broadcaster entirely reliant on the licence fee, with no advertising revenue:Public broadcasting: Licence fees in Europe comparedhttps://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8101/CBP-8101.pdf