Rent The Roo partners with GoCardless to cut dishonour fees

GoCardless has partnered with Rent The Roo to enhance payment experiences and eliminate dishonour fees for customers.

Rent The Roo, an Australian consumer lease provider, has joined forces with GoCardless, a global payment company known for direct bank payments. This strategic move aims to abolish punitive dishonour fees and improve digital direct debit payments, thus increasing payment success rates for its customers.

Customers utilising Rent The Roo's services will now have access to real-time updates and reminders concerning their payment schedules. This advancement provides better tracking of both pending and completed transactions, which enhances visibility and helps borrowers manage their instalments more effectively.

Previously, Rent The Roo's payment service provider imposed dishonour fees for missed or delayed payments, which some customers incorrectly attributed to Rent The Roo. The collaboration with GoCardless has led to the elimination of these charges, offering customers a more transparent fee structure and shielding them from the financial strain of additional penalties.

Eve McIntyre, General Manager at Rent The Roo, highlighted the challenges customers faced with previous providers: "With our previous payment provider, debit transactions could appear as pending for 24 to 72 hours, often causing confusion about whether a payment had been made. This led to missed payments and unfair third-party fees piling up for clients. With GoCardless, we've taken those charges out, keeping repayments straightforward and fair—no extra penalties attached."

The integration of GoCardless allows automatic debiting from customer accounts when payments are due, improving success rates and ensuring timely, hassle-free collections for ongoing leases. This digital-first payment model has been seamlessly integrated into Rent The Roo's entire network, addressing any data and process fragmentation issues typical of franchise operations.

McIntyre further commented: "Not having dishonour fees has significantly eased our customers' concerns. They used to assume dishonour fees were from Rent The Roo when we had no control over them. GoCardless believes payments should be transparent, which is why it doesn't charge dishonour fees, meaning customers feel more at ease communicating openly with us about any anticipated missed payments."

Luke Fossett, General Manager of Australia and New Zealand at GoCardless, stated: "We're really proud to support businesses like Rent The Roo with a payment system that's simple, reliable and transparent. Often, businesses are reluctant to make significant updates to their payment network due to the difficulty of getting franchisees up to speed at the same time while ensuring customers are not negatively affected. We listened to their challenges and provided personalised support during their data migration from their former payments provider. This whole bulk change process was handled with care to reduce any risk of customer friction and churn."

Fossett elaborated on the benefits of using bank payments: "Using bank payments for instalments offers greater security and reliability for both our merchants and their payers. With direct debit, payments are automated, which reduces the risk of missed or late payments, helping businesses maintain a more predictable cash flow."

He also emphasised the downside of dishonour fees: "Plus, we don't enforce any dishonour fees, which benefits both Rent The Roo and their customers. Late or failed payments do happen, usually unintentionally, but they shouldn't be used as a revenue source by payment providers."