Automatic periodic collection works with two parts:
A mandate: your customer’s permission to automatically collect from their account or card. Read more about mandates.
A subscription: the schedule with the amount and how often to collect. RCUR then collects at the set moments.
There are three ways to get started. Choose the one that fits your situation:
Your customer makes a first payment now: go to way 1.
Your customer does not have to pay anything upfront and only gives permission: go to way 2.
You already have a mandate or the IBAN of your customer: go to way 3.
Way 1: your customer makes a first payment via a payment link
The customer pays the first amount. Mollie then automatically records the mandate, and the subscription starts right away.
Go to “Payment links” and click “Create payment link”. You can also open a customer and add a payment link via “New”.
Under “Type”, choose “Subscription (Basic)” or “Subscription (Advanced)”. “Subscription (Advanced)” is available from the Advanced plan.
Fill in all required fields and click “Create payment link”.
Send the payment link to your customer.
The customer makes the first payment, for example via iDEAL, Bancontact or credit card. The mandate is then added and the subscription starts automatically.
Way 2: your customer only gives permission, without a first payment
For a payment link of the type “Subscription (Advanced)” you can enable the option “Sign-up form (no first payment)” (from the Expert plan). Your customer then fills in their details and IBAN and gives permission for the direct debit. No first payment is needed and the subscription starts right away. Read how the sign-up form works.
Way 3: you add a subscription to a customer yourself
For a subscription that you add yourself, the customer first needs a valid mandate. You can arrange that in one of these ways:
Via a payment link: send your customer a payment link of the type “Mandate”. The amount can be €0.01 or higher. With this the customer verifies their account.
By adding an IBAN yourself: open the customer, click “New” and choose “Create mandate”. Fill in the name and the IBAN. This is possible from the Advanced plan, not with the Starter plan. Make sure your customer has given you permission to do this.
Does your customer already have a mandate? Then you can add a subscription right away. Open the customer, click “New” and choose “Subscription (Basic)” or “Subscription (Advanced)”.
Basic or Advanced subscription?
Basic | Advanced | |
|---|---|---|
Available from | Starter plan | Advanced plan |
Where to find it | On the customer page, under the “Subscriptions (Basic)” tab (found under “More”) | In the menu under “Subscriptions” (Advanced), and on the customer page |
Who is it for? | Simple subscriptions with a fixed amount and interval. They are managed by Mollie, which means they cannot be paused, for example. | More options to make collecting easier, such as multiple payment rules and pausing. We recommend these if you have an Advanced plan or higher. |
You can find step-by-step instructions in How to create a Basic Subscription? and How to create an Advanced Subscription?. A more extensive comparison is in What are the differences between the subscription functionalities in RCUR?
More information about the processing time of a collection payment can be found in the help center of Mollie: When are the collection payments processed and paid out?