Set up a subscription with the related setting Direct Debit in Australia

Learn how to create and charge for a subscription with the related setting Direct Debit.

Note

If you’re a new user, use the Payment Element instead of using Stripe Elements as described in this guide. The Payment Element provides a low-code integration path with built-in conversion optimisations. For instructions, see Build a subscription.

Use this guide to set up a subscription using the related setting Direct Debit as a payment method.

Create a product and price Dashboard

Products represent the item or service you’re selling. Prices define how much and how frequently you charge for a product. This includes how much the product costs, what currency you accept, and whether it’s a one-off or recurring charge. If you only have a few products and prices, create and manage them in the Dashboard.

This guide uses a stock photo service as an example and charges customers a 15 AUD monthly subscription. To model this:

1. Go to the Products page and click Create product .
2. Enter a Name for the product. You can optionally add a Description and upload an image of the product.
3. Select a Product tax code . Learn more about product tax codes .
4. Select Recurring . Then enter 15 for the price and select AUD as the currency.
5. Choose whether to Include tax in price . You can either use the default value from your tax settings or set the value manually. In this example, select Auto .
6. Select Monthly for the Billing period .
7. Click More pricing options . Then select Flat rate as the pricing model for this example. Learn more about flat rate and other pricing models .
8. Add an internal Price description and Lookup key to organise, query and update specific prices in the future.
9. Click Next . Then click Add product .

After you create the product and the price, record the price ID so you can use it in subsequent steps. The pricing page displays the ID and it looks similar to this: price_G0FvDp6vZvdwRZ.

Create a SetupIntent Server-side

A SetupIntent is an object that represents your intent to set up a customer’s payment method for future payments. The SetupIntent will track the steps of this set-up process. For the related setting Direct Debit, this includes collecting a mandate from the customer and tracking its validity throughout its lifecycle.

Create a SetupIntent on your server. Enable the payment method in your Dashboard. Stripe displays eligible payment methods automatically.

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The returned SetupIntent object contains a client_secret property. Pass the client secret to the client-side application to continue with the setup process.

Collect payment method details and mandate acknowledgment Client-side

You’re ready to collect payment information on the client with Stripe Elements. Elements is a set of pre-built UI components for collecting payment details.

A Stripe Element contains an iframe that securely sends the payment information to Stripe over an HTTPS connection. The checkout page address must also start with https:// rather than http:// for your integration to work.

You can test your integration without using HTTPS. Enable it when you’re ready to accept live payments.

Set up Stripe Elements

Stripe Elements is automatically available as a feature of Stripe.js. Include the Stripe.js script on your payment page by adding it to the head of your HTML file. Always load Stripe.js directly from js.stripe.com to remain PCI compliant. Don’t include the script in a bundle or host a copy of it yourself.

payment_setup.html

Create an instance of Elements with the following JavaScript on your payment page:

const stripe = Stripe('pk_test_GvF3BSyx8RSXMK5yAFhqEd3H');
const elements = stripe.elements();

Direct Debit Requests

Before you can create a the related setting Direct Debit payment, your customer must agree with the Direct Debit Request Service Agreement. They do so by submitting a completed Direct Debit Request (DDR). The approval gives you a mandate to debit their account. The Mandate is a record of the permission to debit a payment method.

For online mandate acceptance, you can create a form to collect the necessary information. Serve the form over HTTPS and capture the following information:

When collecting a Direct Debit Request, follow our the related setting Direct Debit Terms and as part of your checkout form:

• Display the exact terms of Stripe’s DDR service agreement either inline on the form, or on a page linked from the form, and identifying it as the “DDR service agreement”.
• Make sure the accepted DDR and its accompanying DDR service agreement can be shared with your customer at all times, either as a printed or non-changeable electronic copy (such as email). Stripe hosts this for you.
• Display the following standard authorization text for your customer to accept the the related setting DDR, where you replace Rocketship Inc with your company name. Their acceptance authorizes you to initiate the related setting Direct Debit payments from their bank account.

Note

By providing your bank account details, you agree to this Direct Debit Request and the Direct Debit Request service agreement and authorise Stripe Payments Australia Pty Ltd ACN 160 180 343 Direct Debit User ID number 507156 (“Stripe”) to debit your account through the Bulk Electronic Clearing System (the related setting) on behalf of Rocketship Inc (the “Merchant”) for payments as per the terms of your agreement with the Merchant. You certify that you’re either an account holder or an authorised signatory on the account listed above.

The details of the accepted mandate are generated when setting up a PaymentMethod or confirming a PaymentIntent. At all times, you should be able to share this mandate – the accepted DDR and its accompanying DDR service agreement – with your customer, either in print or as a non-changeable electronic copy (such as email). Stripe hosts this for you under the url property of the Mandate object linked to the PaymentMethod.

Add and configure an Australia Bank Account Element

The Australia Bank Account Element will help you collect and validate both the BSB number and the account number. It needs a place to live in your payment form. Create empty DOM nodes (containers) with unique IDs in your payment form. Additionally, your customer must read and accept the Direct Debit Request service agreement.

payment_setup.html

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When the form loads, you can create an instance of the Australia Bank Account Element and mount it to the Element container:

// Custom styling can be passed to options when creating an Element
const style = {
 base: {
 color: '#32325d',
 fontSize: '16px',
 '::placeholder': {
 color: '#aab7c4'
 },
 ':-webkit-autofill': {
 color: '#32325d',
 },
 },
 invalid: {
 color: '#fa755a',
 iconColor: '#fa755a',
 ':-webkit-autofill': {
 color: '#fa755a',
 },
 }
};

const options = {
 style: style,
 disabled: false,
 hideIcon: false,
 iconStyle: "default", // or "solid"
}

// Create an instance of the auBankAccount Element.
const auBankAccount = elements.create('auBankAccount', options);

// Add an instance of the auBankAccount Element into
// the `au-bank-account-element` <div>.
auBankAccount.mount('#au-bank-account-element');

Submit the payment method details to Stripe Client-side

Rather than sending the entire SetupIntent object to the client, use its client secret from step 2. This is different from your API keys that authenticate Stripe API requests.

The client secret should be handled carefully because it can complete the setup. Don’t log it, embed it in URLs, or expose it to anyone but the customer.

Use stripe.confirmAuBecsDebitSetup to complete the setup when the user submits the form. A successful setup returns a succeeded value for the SetupIntent’s status property. If the setup isn’t successful, inspect the returned error to determine the cause.

const form = document.getElementById('setup-form');
const accountholderName = document.getElementById('accountholder-name');
const email = document.getElementById('email');
const submitButton = document.getElementById('submit-button');
const clientSecret = submitButton.dataset.secret;

form.addEventListener('submit', async (event) => {
 event.preventDefault();
 stripe.confirmAuBecsDebitSetup(
 clientSecret,
 {
 payment_method: {
 au_becs_debit: auBankAccount,
 billing_details: {
 name: accountholderName.value,
 email: email.value
 }
 }
 }
 );
});

After successfully confirming the SetupIntent, you should share the mandate URL from the Mandate object with your customer. We also recommend including the following details to your customer when you confirm their mandate has been established:

• an explicit confirmation message that indicates a Direct Debit arrangement has been set up
• the business name that will appear on the customer’s bank statement whenever their account gets debited
• the payment amount and schedule (if applicable)
• a link to the generated DDR mandate URL

The Mandate object’s ID is accessible from the mandate on the SetupIntent object, which is sent as part of the setup_intent.succeeded event sent after confirmation, but can also be retrieved through the API.

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Create a customer with a PaymentMethod Server-side

Creating subscriptions requires an object that represents the customer, which can be either a customer-configured Account or a Customer. Because the subscription charges recurring payments, you need to add a stored payment method to the customer to use for future payments.

Use the Accounts v2 API to represent customers

The Accounts v2 API is generally available for Connect users, and in public preview for other Stripe users. If you’re part of the Accounts v2 preview, you need to specify a preview version in your code.

To join the Accounts v2 preview, go to Account previews and features in your Dashboard and enable Reusable payment methods for Global Payouts.

For most use cases, we recommend modelling your customers as customer-configured Account objects instead of using Customer objects.

Create a customer-configured Account, then update it to set the payment method you just collected as its configuration.customer.billing.default_payment_method. This makes the payment method the default for invoices and subscriptions.

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After creating the customer, store its ID in your own database so you can use it later.

Create the subscription Server-side

Create a subscription with the price and customer:

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Creating subscriptions automatically charges customers using the default payment method. After the first successful payment, the subscription status in the Dashboard changes to Active. Subsequent charges use the price you created earlier.

Manage subscription status Client-side

A subscription can become active while its first payment is still processing, so don’t use the subscription status alone to determine whether the payment succeeded. Before fulfilling goods or services, wait for the invoice.paid event or confirm that the underlying PaymentIntent has a succeeded status, and verify that the related subscription is active.

When payments fail, the status changes to the Subscription status configured in your automatic collection settings. Notify the customer after a failure and charge them with a different payment method.

Note

the related setting Direct Debit payments are never automatically retried, even if you have a retry schedule configured for other payment methods.

Test the integration

You can test your form using the test BSB number 000000 and one of the test account numbers below with your confirmAuBecsDebitSetup request, or use the corresponding token to skip manually entering bank account details.

Optional Set the billing period

Optional Subscription trials