GoCardless Reviews 2,422

Go Cardless is used for payments to the club that I administer memberships, and I have found the processes easy to follow, and if I need support there is always help on hand.

Good service fast turnaround

We signed up to GoCardless in good faith and provided all requested documentation promptly. Each day, a new email arrived asking for additional information. Each time, we responded immediately, supplying everything asked for, including full formation documents and supporting materials.

After days of back and forth, our account was suddenly rejected with no actionable explanation beyond “we cannot provide further details.” As a regulated institution, verification is expected. What is not acceptable is a piecemeal, opaque process that drags on, consumes time, and then ends without clarity or resolution.

We were in the process of moving from Stripe and chose GoCardless specifically for its Xero integration. Unfortunately, the experience was inefficient, frustrating, and ultimately unproductive. There are many payment processors available, and this process made it very easy to reconsider.

Regulation should not come at the expense of transparency, efficiency, or basic respect for a business’s time. Based on this experience, we cannot recommend GoCardless to companies expecting a clear, professional onboarding process.

Would give no stars if I could, holding our funds for over 10 business days creating cashflow issues for our business. Contacted support to ask why theres such a delay and they just advised us to cancel our account if were not happy, terrible service wouldn't recommend.

The process of signing up with GoCardless requires submitting at least 20 documents, which is more than for opening a bank account or most similar financial products. In addition, their support does not explain all required documents upfront, which results in long email exchanges as they repeatedly request additional documentation.

Once the account is finally set up, GoCardless does not display the actual business name charging the direct debit on the customer’s bank statement. As a result, three of our customers did not recognize the transaction, since most people do not know what “GoCardless” is.

After we contacted the customers to explain the charges, GoCardless blocked our future direct debits due to the chargebacks made by customers. These chargebacks occurred because basic disclosure information for customers is a paid feature with GoCardless (which they do not inform about upfront).

The account review initiated by GoCardless started two weeks ago and is still ongoing, despite us submitting all requested documents on the same day.

This experience has been extremely poor. We strongly recommend avoiding GoCardless and instead using other payment providers or setting up a direct debit creditor account directly with your bank.

Absolutely 😍 GoCardless for Small Business.

It has revolutionised our brand offerings with two of our event brands with the Sussex Business Show and The Directors' Hub which are now set up with E-commerce solutions with WooCommerce.

Both companies have been really helpful and I'm happy to shout their praises. 🤗

GC Customer Experience team and Helpdesk is brilliant, fast and responsive as they helped with a recent issue, and the rates to use their services are low too.

🤘 Bonus level unlocked. And, they give £100 for every referral, what's not to like.

Thank you. 😍

Recently registered as was looking for a new way to receive money. Used the 'test payment' option to make sure everything was set up correctly. £1 arrived from my partners account, and was then withdrawn into my account. Then my partner sent another £300 which left her bank. Today, the day it was meant to arrive in my GoCardless account, I receive an email saying my account has been closed after a 'review'. Fair enough, if they don't want me as a customer it is their choice. However, now the £300 my partner sent is lost. In the 'Thanks but no thanks' email I received it stated that any money in the account wouldn't be automatically returned and it can't be withdrawn to my account now it's closed. My partner has spent ALL day speaking to GoCardless ('Tom') about her £300 and they are washing their hands of it and are USELESS. Apparently she needs to contact her bank and issue a chargeback. What an absolute disgrace. If you don't want people as customers, fine, but who on earth do you think you are keeping peoples money? My partner has lodged an official complaint with GoCardless, will be speaking to her bank AND lodging a complaint with the FCA. Just return her money, it's pretty simple, she has given you all the transaction ID's!

-edit-

My partner has just spoken to her bank as GoCardless told her that is the only way she can get her money back and they've told her she can't issue a chargeback as it was sent to another account. GoCardless literally said that was the only way she can get her money back, by issuing a chargeback! They are giving misleading advice. GoCardless, my partner has lodged an official complaint with you, this is your chance to make things right. Send her £300 back or she will be reporting you to the FCA and will spend however long it takes making sure you are forced to right your wrong.

-Another edit-

You should receive my partners complaint letter to your head office tomorrow, don't worry, she sent it recorded so she can prove you received it

-24th January 2026 update-

My partners official complaint letter was delivered to your head office yesterday (Friday 23rd January 2026) at 10:42am and signed for by Andrea. Updating this post as evidence that will be used in a case against you via the FCA and Financial Ombudsman. Do the right thing and return her £300.

-28th January update-

My partner received two emails today from GoCardless saying both payments have been refunded. I am not sure if this is because of her complaint letter, the complaint letter I put in yesterday or it was just automatically returned but it seems this drama is finally over. I will leave this review up for the time being and then consider taking it down/changing the stars when the money has landed in her account but for now I am glad it seems GoCardless have done the right thing.

edit-

Final edit, the £300 is now showing in my partners bank.

I've thought long and hard about this one star review and whether I should deleted/change stars based on the fact my partner now has her money back. However, I have decided to leave it as 1 star for a few reasons. Firstly, the support I and my partner received over the missing £300 was quite frankly appalling. The money was gone for 9 days in total. The customer service members were uncaring and unhelpful. I will rename this person again because they were awful. 'Tom' on Live Chat was everything a customer support member shouldn't be. Blunt, unfriendly, unhelpful and honestly useless. Also, the refund is in my partners bank now, but STILL no contact from GoCardless. No apology, no further reply to the complaint email after the response of "You need to issue a chargeback, if you can come back to us with evidence they won't charge it back, we can LOOK at it". Is that the way to reply to a complaint? Looking on the GoCardless website it states the complaints team are separate from the main company, based on my experience the complaint team have the same low poor standards as the rest of this company.

I have NEVER had a company involved in money simply say "Sorry, nothing we can do about the money that has been sent to your account, the person who sent it needs to try get it back". That attitude is disgusting and for this reason, the 1 star review will remain. Be VERY careful if you decide to use this company, it could end up in huge frustration and time and effort needed to get issues resolved.

Oh, by the way, the reply from GoCardless below saying "We can see that you are currently in touch with our Account Review Team, who will respond in due course." is utter nonsense. I was in touch with them and they simply responded telling me my partner would need to issue a chargback. Some response!

Stolen Money

Opened a account and had my first payment made asap and my account closed a day later with no clear reason and same for others! They took £500 and no way to get it back!

I hope i can get this sorted, it's a lot of money to me as a freelancer!

Scammed me out of £300 worth of referrals too

Update 26.01.25 : I've had the reply below and nothing that appears to be human from the emails I sent 4 days ago. AI/bot replies. Hopefully this can be resolved. I will keep this updated

Update 28.01.25: I've submitted invoices, links to my freelance and photos of my id and myself. I got what seems like an automated rejection. my money is now stuck with them and no way to get it back. Shocking practices and company. I've no idea what to do now

Update 30.12.25: Said they will refund my client in 2-3 days!!!

Update 04.02.26: They lied no money returned and had an another email saying the client has to claw the money back. Clients bank can’t do it and says it with Gocardless to do (which I believe). I’ve filed a claim with the financial ombudsman. I hope they can help. £500 just stolen by Gocardless and soulless responses

Update 02.04.2026: Took the financial ombudsman route and won. Got my money back + compensation.

Update 13.05.2026: Issues with Gocardless again. Clown company. Cheating me out for the referrals I gave out when I first opened my account. They will avoid any sort of payments this company. Use a real vendor, not these cowboys.

Reasonable fees, easy to use platform, seamless experience!

very dissapointed with this company ,they let you open a account and set it up with xero, a cust then pays money into there account ,using ther link,then they need more info about my bussiness, before paying me into my account ,and no i cannot give them a website i dont have or a porfolio, they closed the account keeping my customers money 2k,iam a self employed joiner for 30yrs and work on word of mouth ,i have now been told to speak to my cust and ask there bank to try and get it refunded and then paid to me ,absolute joke of a company ,it is ment to be easyier for the cust and me but is more issuses than it is worth

DO NOT USE THIS PAYMENT PROCESSOR FOR YOUR BUSINESS!

Usually use stripe but wanted to provide an alternative method and had heard decent things about GoCardless.

A client payed £500 and the account was immediately closed, they don’t automatically refund the clients and refuse to pay you out.

The customer has called his bank and they have been unable to help him as he has already received the product.

Therefore it’s myself that’s £500 out of pocket and GoCardless are now £500 richer.

This is a fraudulent scheme they have going on.

Reported to FCA.

Easy to set up and maintain Direct debits

Your support isnt very good. Still waiting for a response to my urgent request.
You've withheld our money since May!

Been a customer for over 10 years using GoCardless to collect memberships for our amateur Rugby Club. These funds are vital to cover our outgoings every month. For years they have collected with accuracy and sent funds across in a timely manor. Recently however, the payments have been coming later and later every month. This month (Jan 2026), when our funds were 10 days late I chased them. I was given two assurances funds were sent but on both occasions not received. On the third chase I was told “They have be sent and will be with you Monday”. The operator advised me to change my payouts to monthly not weekly with a view of this not happening again (strange as it’s been fine for years), but I did.

Lo and behold, Monday arrived, no funds. They NOW say, “You’ve moved your payment date so it will be February now”!

£50,000,000,000 in clients funds….work out the interest on that! We have now been resorted to small claims court as their CEO Hiroki replied with “We can deal with it that way if you wish”.

I wouldn’t surprised if more people are experiencing this and FCA investigations are done on this firm. BE CAREFUL.

it would be good if we could change the direct debit dates on custom 4 weekly template manually when we want. Each year I have to cancel all the payments and add all the clients back on the template to restart on a different payment date. Its takes too long like that as I has many branches.

Won't be ever using go cardless ever again

Brilliant app collect payments really quickly. No chasing customers 👍

Really disappointed with this service. As a new customer I was asked to verify my details which got approved. Days later they shut my account without reason and now have locked away my money which I can’t access. I am having to wait to appeal which is just ridiculous!

I asked for my account to be closed they would not close it no matter how many times I tried to close it they went in and took money from customers regardless for months causing major problems for the business and the customers.
Utterly disgusting behaviour

Avoid this company! GoCardless has been processing a monthly subscription payment to my underfloor heating company 17 months after the company went into liquidation.
The liquidators formally instructed GoCardless to stop processing payments for this merchant in July 2024, yet they continued to take money from my account regardless.
When I finally discovered this and contacted GoCardless, the experience was appalling. They:
Refused to issue a refund
Refused to let me speak to a manager
Told me to take the matter up with the liquidators — despite the liquidators confirming they never received my money
So GoCardless took my money, ignored the liquidators’ instructions, and then washed their hands of any responsibility.
This is unacceptable behaviour from a payment processor and raises serious concerns about their controls, accountability, and customer protection.
Do not touch this company. I will now be pursuing this through the small claims court.