Overview
Recurring payments with standing authorisation via Volt's Mandate Management API
Available Markets
Mandates are available in Australia (PayTo / AUD) and coming soon to the United Kingdom (cVRP / GBP).
Volt's Mandate Management API enables merchants to set up standing authorisations and trigger recurring payments — all through a single global API that works the same way across every supported recurring payment scheme. The same integration and flows apply regardless of market.
What is a mandate?
A mandate is a payer's standing authorisation for a partner to initiate debits on their behalf. Once established, the mandate can be used to trigger recurring payments without redirecting the payer each time. Mandates support both fixed and variable amounts, making them suitable for subscriptions, usage-based billing, instalment plans, and any other scenario where the charge may differ between payments.
Common use cases
| Use case | Description |
|---|---|
| Subscriptions | Fixed or variable billing on a regular cycle |
| Instalment plans | Split a total amount into scheduled payments |
| Account top-ups | Automatically top up a balance when it falls below a threshold |
| Usage-based / invoice billing | Collect after the fact based on actual consumption |
| Free trials | Set up the mandate now; trigger the first payment when the trial ends |
| One-click payments | Authorise once, then charge on demand — e.g. one-click checkout or one-click deposits |
Integration flows
Immediate payment — set up the mandate and trigger the first payment in a single session. The payer authorises the mandate and the first charge is initiated right away.
Deferred payment — set up the mandate now and collect later. Common for free trials: the mandate is authorised upfront, but payment is only initiated when the billing period begins.
Supported systems
PayTo (Australia)
In Australia, Volt supports recurring payments using PayTo rails — the real-time payment mandate framework built on the New Payments Platform (NPP). PayTo mandates are:
- Real-time — authorisation and payment settlement happen within seconds.
- Bank-authorised — the payer approves the mandate directly in their banking app.
- Amendable — mandate details and limits can be updated after setup, with or without payer re-approval depending on the change.
Use system: "PAY_TO" and currency: "AUD" when creating a mandate.
Supported limits: a per-payment amount (fixed or maximum) and an optional number of payments per period — configurable over ADHOC, DAY, WEEK, MONTH, or YEAR windows.
cVRP (United Kingdom)
In the UK, Volt will support commercial Variable Recurring Payments (cVRP) — an open banking mandate framework that lets a merchant collect variable amounts from a payer's bank account without re-authorisation for each payment.
- Bank-redirect authorisation — the payer is redirected to their bank to approve the mandate.
- Flexible limits — set a per-payment cap and a periodic (daily / weekly / monthly / yearly) spending limit.
- GBP only — settled in pounds sterling via UK open banking rails.
Use system: "VRP" and currency: "GBP" when creating a mandate.
Supported limits: a per-payment maximum amount and a periodic maximum amount — configurable over DAY, WEEK, MONTH, or YEAR windows.
Supported use cases
The use cases that the UK cVRP scheme supports are being rolled out in multiple phases. Wave 1 use cases, which are supported today, include:
- Utilities and rail companies
- Regulated financial services firms
- Government payments
- Charities
In the future there will be additional use cases, including digital subscriptions and one-click ecommerce payments, available for UK cVRP and through Volt. Contact us for more details.
Capability comparison
| Capability | PayTo (AU) | cVRP (UK) |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | ✅ | ✅ |
| Recurring payments | ✅ | ✅ |
| Amendments | ✅ | ❌ |
| Suspend / Release | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cancel | ✅ | ✅ |
| Hosted checkout | ✅ | ✅ |
| API-only | ✅ | ✅ |
Next steps
- — step-by-step setup for both PayTo (AU) and cVRP (UK)
- — how to change mandate details after setup (PayTo only)
- — full endpoint reference
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