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Final Acceptgiro forms to be mailed in eighteen months

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Currence, the product owner of the collective Acceptgiro, has announced on its website that, as of 1 June 2023, it will cease offering and supporting this paper payment product, which has been in use for over 40 years.

Example of a completed payment slip with amount, IBAN, name and address, intended to show step by step how a payment by payment slip works. The giro collection form shows clearly marked fields for entering the amount to be paid in euros and cents, the IBAN of the payer and personal data such as name and address. In addition, instructions are included on the use of blue or black ink, filling in the IBAN when paying and checking whether all mandatory red boxes have been completed. At the bottom are the recipient's details, the payment reference and the machine reading line, which together ensure correct processing of the payment.

Currence states that the use of the yellow Acceptgiro is declining very rapidly , at a rate of around 30 per cent per year. More and more businesses and consumers prefer to use other, easier payment methods. It is estimated that by 2023, only 2 million paper Acceptgiro forms will still be sent to banks by post. According to Currence, this amounts to an average of just one Acceptgiro form per household once every four years.

Modern alternatives

Tens of thousands of organisations have now switched to other, more efficient payment methods, such as direct debits, mobile payment requests, invoices sent by email with a payment link, QR codes and standard paper payment instructions. Over the next year and a half, the Dutch Payments Association, banks and other financial service providers will support the remaining senders of Acceptgiro forms in making the switch to better alternatives.

A commonly used alternative to the Acceptgiro is direct debit. The numerous safeguards in place to protect consumers against unauthorised direct debit mandates have led to a greater willingness to grant direct debit authorisations to companies and institutions. Consumers can also submit such an authorisation on paper by post.

Standard payment instruction

To make it easier to pay invoices and donations via standard bank transfers, organisations can send all the necessary payment details clearly set out on paper using a contract-free standard Payment Instruction. This clearly lists, one below the other, the amount to be paid, the recipient’s name, the recipient’s IBAN and the payment reference. The payer can easily enter this payment information via online or mobile banking, or transfer the funds using a paper transfer form from their own bank.

An ‘Acceptgiro’ is not the same as a transfer form

The Acceptgiro is a standardised, pre-printed paper payment form that companies and organisations send by post with an invoice or a request for a donation. You can only use an Acceptgiro to pay the party that sent it to you. The name and IBAN of the company or organisation, as well as the payment reference, are filled in by the sender in advance. Often, the sender has also already filled in the amount and the payer’s name and IBAN. Fewer than one in ten Acceptgiro forms sent out are still signed by hand by the payer and posted to their bank. More than 90 per cent of recipients pay or donate via online or mobile banking.

Acceptgiro forms are sometimes confused with the paper transfer forms issued by the larger banks. Anyone who prefers to pay on paper rather than via online or mobile banking can request these forms from their bank, fill them in and sign them themselves, and post them to their bank.

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