Terms of service

1. Acceptance of terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legally binding agreement between you ("Customer", "you", or "your") and Etellect Ltd, trading as ePayment Services ("Etellect", "we", "us", or "our"). They govern your access to and use of the ePayment website, APIs, portals and payment services (collectively, the "Services").

By accessing the website, submitting an enquiry or application, registering for an account, or clicking an acknowledgement such as "I agree", you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the Services.

If you accept these Terms on behalf of a company or other legal entity, you represent that you have authority to bind that entity, and "you" refers to that entity.

2. Definitions

"BACS" means the UK Bacs payment scheme, including Direct Debit and Direct Credit.

"Bureau" means our BACS bureau service for submitting and managing BACS files without you operating your own cycle.

"DDMS" means the Direct Debit Management System used to lodge mandates, raise collections and process BACS reports.

"Card Services" means card acquiring, gateway and related processing arranged through us and our acquiring partners.

"Open Banking" means account-to-account payment initiation and related account information services where offered.

"Scheme Rules" means the rules, technical standards and operating procedures of Bacs, card schemes (including Visa, Mastercard and American Express), Pay.UK and open banking participants, as applicable.

3. Description of services

Etellect provides UK payment operations services, which may include:

3.1 BACS and Direct Debit

Direct Debit and Direct Credit processing, mandate management (AUDDIS), collections, Standard 18 file handling, and BACS reports including ADDACS, ARUDD, AUDDIS and AWACS, via DDMS and/or the Bureau.

3.2 Card payments

Online card gateway processing and, where agreed, introduction to or provision of acquirer merchant accounts, recurring billing and fraud controls. Card acquiring is subject to underwriting by the relevant acquirer. A credit check may be required.

3.3 Open banking

Bank-to-bank payment initiation and, where offered, account information and variable recurring payments, subject to bank availability and open banking network rules.

3.4 Account validation

Sort code and account number validation (modulus checking) and Confirmation of Payee / Confirmation of Payer where you are eligible and we have arranged access. Those checks may be supplied by sister services in the Etellect group, including eSortcode.

3.5 MCP and APIs

Programmatic access, including Model Context Protocol (MCP) endpoints, to create mandates, fire collections and read BACS reports where we have enabled that access for your account.

We may change, suspend or withdraw a feature of the website at any time. Contracted Services continue under the signed agreement until varied or terminated under that agreement.

4. Website use

The website at epaymentservices.com is provided for information and to let you contact us. Content is not an offer capable of immediate acceptance unless we say so in writing. You must not:

• Use the site in a way that is unlawful, harmful or interferes with other users
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to our systems, APIs or other customers' data
• Scrape, harvest or systematically copy the site except as allowed by robots.txt and ordinary browsing
• Introduce malware or attempt to reverse engineer the Services

5. Accounts and onboarding

To use live payment Services you must complete our onboarding process. You must provide accurate, current information and keep it updated. You must be at least 18 and have capacity to contract.

You are responsible for account credentials, API keys and all activity under your account. Notify us immediately of any unauthorised access. We may refuse, delay or condition onboarding where required by law, scheme rules, underwriting or our risk policy — including for card merchant applications and BACS SUN / service-user setup.

You must not share API keys in public repositories or transmit them over unencrypted channels.

6. Scheme and network rules

Where you use BACS, cards or open banking, you must comply with the applicable Scheme Rules and with the Direct Debit Guarantee. You remain responsible for:

• Obtaining a valid mandate or payer authority before collecting
• The legality and accuracy of collection amounts, dates and payer details
• Handling refunds, chargebacks, indemnity claims and payer disputes in line with scheme timescales
• Not using the Services for prohibited merchant categories or illegal activity

We may suspend processing if we reasonably believe Scheme Rules, sanctions, AML or fraud controls are being breached. BACS, card and open banking networks are operated by third parties; we are not liable for outages, bank rejects or scheme changes outside our control.

7. Fees and payment

Fees are as quoted in your rate card, order form or signed agreement. Website examples (including "from 2.0p", "from 10p plus acquiring" and "0.5% + 10–15p") are illustrative and may vary with volume, mix, risk and acquirer.

Unless stated otherwise, fees are exclusive of VAT. We may invoice in arrears for bureau and transaction charges. Unpaid sums may result in suspension. You are responsible for scheme, bank and acquirer pass-through costs that apply to your traffic.

8. Data protection

Our collection and use of personal data is described in the Privacy and Cookie Policy. For payment processing we typically act as a processor of payer data you submit, and as a controller of your business contact data and of data we must retain for scheme, AML and accounting purposes.

You warrant that you have a lawful basis to submit payer and payee data to us, including for Confirmation of Payee where used, and that your privacy notice covers that processing.

9. Acceptable use

You must not use the Services to:

• Process payments you are not authorised to collect
• Mislead payers about the origin, amount or purpose of a collection
• Resell bureau, Confirmation of Payee or scheme access to third parties without our written agreement
• Circumvent velocity, fraud, KYC or sanctions controls
• Interfere with other customers or with UK payment infrastructure

10. Intellectual property

The website, software, APIs, documentation and branding remain the property of Etellect or its licensors. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Services for your internal business during the term of your agreement. You must not copy, reverse engineer or white-label the Services except as we agree in writing.

You retain rights in your own data. You grant us a licence to use that data solely to provide the Services, meet scheme and legal duties, and improve operational reliability.

11. Warranties and disclaimers

We will provide the contracted Services with reasonable skill and care. The website and any demo, sandbox or marketing material are provided "as is". We do not warrant uninterrupted availability of third-party schemes, banks or acquirers, or that a particular payment will settle on a given date where the scheme or the payer's bank delays or rejects it.

Nothing in these Terms excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or any other liability that cannot be limited under Scots law.

12. Limitation of liability

Subject to section 11, our total liability arising out of or in connection with the Services in any 12-month period is limited to the fees you paid us for those Services in that period, or £500, whichever is greater.

We are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, goodwill, anticipated savings, or any indirect or consequential loss, or for losses caused by your failure to obtain a valid mandate, incorrect payer details, or your breach of Scheme Rules.

13. Term and termination

You may stop using the website at any time. Contracted Services continue until terminated under that contract. We may suspend or terminate access immediately if you materially breach these Terms, fail to pay, or if continued processing would breach law or Scheme Rules.

On termination you remain responsible for in-flight collections, indemnity claims, chargebacks and fees already incurred. We may retain records as required by law and scheme rules.

14. General

These Terms are governed by the law of Scotland. The courts of Scotland have exclusive jurisdiction, except that we may seek injunctive relief in any jurisdiction.

If a provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in force. A failure to enforce a right is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them to a group company or successor.

For notices: Etellect Ltd, Merlin House, 20 Mossland Road, Hillington Park, Glasgow, G52 4XZ, United Kingdom. Email hello@epaymentservices.com. Telephone +44 (0)20 4577 0019.

See also the Privacy and Cookie Policy.