Newton Property Management has expanded its existing relationship with bank payment company GoCardless by adding Instant Bank Pay, its open banking-powered payment feature, to the Direct Debit functionality it uses already.

Through GoCardless’ unique combination of Direct Debit and open banking payments, Newton can now collect both recurring and one-off payments within the same platform. This will help to reduce manual admin, save time and cut costs by avoiding the high fees associated with cards.

Customers will benefit from a more seamless experience, with a single self-service portal to make regular and ad hoc payments for property management. They will also gain greater control over their finances through a new functionality to choose their Direct Debit payment dates.

Vincent Goldie, CEO at Newton Property Management, said: “Newton is committed to modern property management. We want our partners to be as innovative as we are, and when it comes to payments, GoCardless is miles ahead of the competition.

“Adding Instant Bank Pay to our services was a natural next step. We already saw the benefits from using Direct Debit, with automatic payment collection allowing us to divert the hours we used to spend on payment admin to focusing on our core business. By launching Instant Bank Pay, we now have the convenience of managing one-off and recurring payments in one platform, not to mention the savings we’ll realise by swapping cards for bank payments.”

Pat Phelan, Managing Director of UK & Ireland and Chief Customer Officer at GoCardless, said: “Bank payments are perfectly suited to property management. The pull-based nature of Direct Debit means that rent, service charges and other bills are automatically collected from a customer’s bank account on the day they’re due. By adding Instant Bank Pay, companies like Newton can also take one-off payments with the same speedy payment confirmation of cards, without the high price. We’re excited to broaden our relationship with Newton and we look forward to helping them use payments as a key driver for differentiation.”

Newton uses GoCardless through CPL Software, the platform for property and block managers.

This announcement is the latest milestone for the two companies. Newton, which serves 35,000 customers across 1,200 sites, recently acquired chartered surveyor Atholls, accelerating its growth by expanding its presence in Aberdeen. Last month GoCardless completed its acquisition of Nuapay which will fast-track the rollout of new capabilities that will enable merchants to send as well as collect money through GoCardless, adding the potential for property managers to pay contractors.