After 46 years, the giro collection form was completely written off this week. The use of the payment method has become obsolete due to the payment behavior of consumers. According to director Gijs Boudewijn of the Dutch Payments Association, this development is only logical.
In January 2022 there were still 300,000 giro collection forms in circulation, but exactly one year later there were already 100,000 fewer. ‘More than twenty years ago, 300 to 400 million copies were distributed each year. But nowadays everything is digital. Of all payment orders in the Netherlands, only one percent is still on paper, including a very small piece of giro collection form and in addition the normal transfer forms,’ says Boudewijn.
A product for the business market
According to Boudewijn, the giro collection form is in principle a product for the business market, with which entrepreneurs receive their payments from consumers. ‘And you have excellent alternatives for these entrepreneurs in particular. To begin with, that is the direct debit, of which there are more than 1.5 billion per year. There is also the standard payment instruction. You can print this with a QR code on your invoice and it can be scanned with the mobile payment app. Moreover, there are also mobile payment requests, so there are plenty of digital alternatives for the entrepreneur,’ says Boudewijn.
‘The acceptance giro was once a relief for many companies. It was a very nice standardized way. There was a line of code on that giro collection form, which could be read optically. The nice thing was that you could pre-code it all the way. You sent it to the debtor, who then signed it, after which he returned to the bank. There it was scanned and brought to an electronic level and the payment was then made automatically. There were almost no errors; a very efficient means at the time.’
What now?
A special ‘my one-off gift’ has now been developed for those who still frequently used the giro collection form, says Boudewijn. ‘The last consumers who really had an interest in the giro collection form were mainly the elderly, but charitable organizations also made extensive use of it. This one-off gift is also a one-off direct debit authorisation. So a signature can still be put on a piece of paper, for those who want it.’
