Notice I’m not asking about startups offering direct debits platforms (ie. GoCardless), but startups that are using direct debits as their main method to charge their clients.
I’m curious (and I’m drafting some content about it) to know more about their background, if they started charging with credit cards, etc.
No one , really? 
We used to have the option but it is too painful to manage, so we stopped allowing it. I think if your price is in the $500+ per month then it might be worth it.
More details please?
Just because it was a manual process it was difficult. They had to transfer the money, we validated it went into our account, and marked their system as paid. Often they would get the account number wrong and had to try it again. If there was a payment provider that handled it then I am sure it might work better.
Mmm where are you based / or where your users where paying you from? This was for yourontime.com? Do you mind if I send you a couple of questions by email?
Do you specifically mean direct debits? In the UK that has a special meaning with special rules and protections. In the UK the more generic transfer is “standing order”.
Yes, I know about the difference between both. But I think ‘Direct Debit’ term encompass direct debits and standing orders. (I might be wrong though).
Also the guys at Gocardless refer to ‘Direct Debit’ for SaaS with that term https://gocardless.com/guides/intro-to-direct-debit/saas-companies/
Yeah, I guess both have specific meanings. I guess you’re just talking about timed bank transfers. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_debit#United_Kingdom
I’m not sure what you’re asking.
Are you looking for startups who
(a) charge directly with direct debits via their bank; or
b) use a company like GoCardless to charge them for you?
We’ve been using GoCardless over at Childcare.co.uk for quite some time, the service is fine but I personally think it’s too slow for small sums. It can be pretty bad depending on how the weekend falls in the cycle as well. Here’s the estimated schedule for a subscription that was taken up today:
Payment created - 24 Nov 2014
Payment submitted to Bacs - 27 Nov 2014
Payment scheduled to leave customer’s account - 1 Dec 2014
Payment confirmed and received by GoCardless - 2 Dec 2014
Paid out to merchant - 4 Dec 2014
Here’s the schedule for an upgrade that failed:
Payment created - 1 Nov 2014
Payment submitted to Bacs - 5 Nov 2014
Payment failed - instruction cancelled by payer or the payer’s bank - 10 Nov 2014
We give them the benefit of the doubt when signing up as we want a decent experience, so that user enjoyed our service free of charge for 9 days.
Hey @davedevelopment , thanks for the reply! I had that website in my list as I saw it featured in GoCardless site.
Do you mind if I sent you an email (I got it from your website)?
Don’t mind at all, though you’d be better getting me on dave@atst.io, you probably just emailed my boss 