Global bank payment company GoCardless partners with Australian consumer lease provider Rent The Roo

Rent The Roo, an Australian company providing consumer leases, have announced a partnership with GoCardless, a global leader in direct bank payments. The partnership will allow Rent The Roo to remove punitive dishonour fees for its customers while delivering fully digital direct debit payments and increasing payment success rates.

Rent The Roo provides affordable leases, or rentals, on everything from phones and home appliances to furniture, computers, and garden items.

Thanks to GoCardless, Rent The Roo’s customers will now benefit from real-time updates and reminders for upcoming payments. This means they can more easily track both pending and completed transactions, giving them greater visibility and control over their instalments.

GoCardless has also assisted Rent The Roo in boosting customer satisfaction by eliminating customer payment dishonour fees. As is the case with many payment service providers in Australia, Rent The Roo’s previous provider charged dishonour fees, for instance if a payment was missed, submitted later or if a payer makes an error in the process. This led some customers to mistakenly believe the charges originated from Rent The Roo. By removing these, customers have a reduced risk of falling further behind on payments and more transparency over the fee structure.

Eve McIntyre, General Manager at Rent The Roo said, “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.”

With GoCardless, payments are automatically pulled from customers’ accounts when due, which has improved payment success rates. This setup is perfect for its ongoing leases, ensuring payments are always collected on time and without hassle for both Rent The Roo and their customers. GoCardless’ digital-first model and easy-to-use platform has also provided benefits, and the team have worked with Rent The Roo to scale GoCardless across the whole franchise network seamlessly to rectify any fragmented data and processes that these networks often suffer from.

“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,” said McIntyre.

Luke Fossett, General Manager of Australia and New Zealand at GoCardless, said, “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.”

“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,” said Fossett.

“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,” added Fossett.