Bill payments are designed for accounts with credit lines. The system calculates the bill payment amount and requests it via SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) from your connected external bank account.
As per the requirements for SDDs (SEPA Direct Debits), you will receive an email notification regarding the debit amounts two bank working days before the withdrawal from your billing account.
The system calculates the frequency and deferment of the payments, which depend on the organization's details. These details will be thoroughly discussed during the onboarding process.
Direct debit is currently only available for EUR-denominated accounts. For non-EUR currencies or in rare cases where the external EUR bank account does not support SEPA debits, bill payments must instead be made via wire transfer.
For more information about Wire Transfer Bill payments, please refer to the article here: Wire Transfer Bill Payments article.
Choosing and changing the bill payment frequency
Pliant issues billing statements in a monthly cycle. However, the schedule for paying open billing amounts is independent of the monthly billing statement period. This means Pliant allows the payment of open billing amounts back in various payment frequencies.
Currently, we offer monthly, semi-monthly, bi-weekly, weekly, and daily bill payments.
The payment frequency is set during onboarding when your organization's credit line is assigned. While you can choose your own payment frequency, we conduct a risk assessment for each organization, and depending on the score, some frequencies might not be available.
The chosen payment frequency is essential for two reasons:
The total available spending volume, such as making multiple bill payments per month, also means you can turn over the amount of your credit limit multiple times per month.
The frequency of payment directly impacts the cashback rate your organization can earn. Opting for more frequent or earlier payments results in higher cashback amounts.
In the case of multiple card accounts, you can set different payment frequencies for each of your card accounts.
If you are interested in changing payment frequencies, please contact our support team either by phone at +49 30 54453778-0, through the chat in our mobile or web app, or by submitting a ticket via our Support Form.
Choosing and changing the bill payment terms
If the organization’s risk profile allows it, Pliant also offers payment terms, i.e., deferral of bill payments by 14 or 30 days. These payment terms can be flexibly combined with any of the offered payment frequencies. For example, it is possible to defer each daily payment by 14 days.
You can choose your own payment term option, but availability depends on the organization's risk score. This means that specific payment term options might not be available for your organization.
If you are interested in payment terms and wish to make a change, please contact our support team either by phone at +49 30 54453778-0, through the chat in our mobile or web app, or by submitting a ticket via our Support Form.
What are the cut-off and payment dates of a bill payment?
Cut-off dates mark the end of the billing period for transactions to be included in the bill payment. Booking dates refer to when the payment is actually debited from your bank account. The amount will be debited from your account the next business day. When the payment is triggered, an email will be sent to your account that includes the billing amount and a CSV file listing all transactions included in the billing statement. The date we debited your account can be seen from the Planned booking date on the Payments page.
Hovering over the dates on the Payments page will show a description of the dates. You’ll see the cut-off and planned payment dates here. If you want to see when a particular bill payment has arrived, you can check it by expanding the respective Statements on the Statements page.
When does a bill payment change your account’s limit?
The available balance in your card account changes once the bill payment is booked in the Pliant system. The balance does not change when the bill payment is triggered but only after the booking is complete, usually one bank working day after the booking date. You can see the planned booking date of a bill payment on the Payments page.
You can top up your account if you want to increase your account balance without waiting for the bill payment schedule.
Normally, organizations do a top-up when they expect an incoming big spend and the current amount will not suffice or when the credit limit is running low and the organization needs more funds. Please note that the top-up can take up to two business days.
How do bill payments appear on the Statement PDF?
Statement periods are based on calendar months. A statement PDF is created from a statement period. That means that only one PDF is generated per month. If you have a daily, weekly, biweekly, or semi-monthly payment frequency, then there will be multiple bill payments within the statement period.
The PDF statement displays all the booked transactions and payments sorted by booking date. The PDF file includes other fields like the merchant, card used for the transaction, amount, and more.
What happens if bill payments are not successful?
If a bill payment is unsuccessful, you will be notified via email. The system will show a direct debit reversal type of payment on your Statements page, and a retry directive will be issued. The retry will be triggered three times until the process is successful. In the meantime, our customer service team will contact you to resolve the issue.
Common reasons for unsuccessful payments include the bank account not allowing SEPA direct debit or insufficient funds. Please inform your account manager or our customer service team if you project any problems with your upcoming direct debit bill payment.
Please note that reversals sometimes occur with a small fee, generally between 2-5€. This fee will be reflected in the next retry payment and will appear separately on your Statements page under the respective statement period.