GoCardless, the recurring payments company that allows clients to collect from customers’ bank accounts, is launching Success+, a new tool that uses transactional data and machine learning to automatically schedule the best date to retry failed payments.

“Payment failure has a negative impact on your customer experience,” said Siamac Rezaiezadeh, head of product marketing at GoCardless. He added that most companies care more about payment success than the payment method. “Success+ is designed to help [clients] improve their numbers around payments success. We’re using that data and intelligence to drive better outcomes.”
GoCardless, which processes $15 billion of payments annually in 30 markets, is positioning Success+ as a cost-saving tool for businesses. According to Rezaiezadeh, companies spend almost $150,000 each year recovering failed payments, and the new tool can help automate the entire rescheduling process.
Success+ uses macro-level data, such as what days of the month consumers usually get paid in different countries, as well as industry data and individual transactional data. GoCardless’ machine-learning algorithm then determines the best day for a business to retry a payment that failed initially. The tool is available for all clients, but only for payments made in the U.K. to start. The company plans to expand that to Europe in about a month, and globally this year.
See also: GoCardless launches direct debit option for US payers
According to the company, 2,000 clients tested the solution before it officially launched today. Those clients have seen payment failure rates decrease by 15%, and 63% of those clients have seen an increase in cash flow.
GoCardless’ clients are both business-to-business and direct-to-consumer companies, and include DocuSign, Tripadvisor and The Guardian. Clients can connect to GoCardless’ recurring payments solution directly through an API or through software solutions like QuickBooks and Sage. The company pitches the cheaper prices of pulling directly from customers’ bank accounts. GoCardless charges 1% plus £0.20 per transaction in the U.K. and Europe, with a cap of £4 ($4.92). Interchange fees, meanwhile, can run as high as 2.7%.
Despite the competitive pricing, David Gyori, CEO of Banking Reports, previously told Bank Innovation that interchange rates vary depending on the market, and GoCardless’ prices might not be cheaper than interchange around the world.
GoCardless has raised more than $122 million since its founding in 2011. According to Rezaiezadeh, the company has more than 50,000 merchants using its platform. In the future, the company aims to use its data to help clients preemptively determine when a payment will fail, and GoCardless would like to launch installment features to help end customers who can’t pay.
“We’re moving beyond just the ability to pull from a bank account,” Rezaiezadeh said. “We’re starting to get more into payment success.”






