# gocardless mandate cancelled: customer bank account closed mid-plan

## TL;DR
The bank account behind the mandate is gone, so no further direct debits can be collected. Pause the payment schedule, ask the customer for a new mandate on their new account, and only resume collections once the new mandate is active. Chasing the old mandate wastes retries.

```text
gocardless mandate cancelled: customer bank account closed mid-plan
```

## Steps

1. Confirm the mandate status is cancelled and read the cancellation reason. Success check: you can see the account-closure reason, not a generic failure.
2. Pause the payment schedule for this customer so no more collection attempts fire against a dead mandate. Success check: zero new attempts are scheduled.
3. Send the customer a new mandate setup link and explain their bank account changed. Success check: the customer starts the new mandate flow.
4. Wait for the new mandate to become active before scheduling the next collection. Success check: the mandate status is active, not pending.
5. Collect any missed payments against the new mandate, in an order the customer agreed to. Success check: arrears are cleared without surprise bulk debits.

## When this applies

- A GoCardless mandate is cancelled because the customer's bank account closed.
- Direct debit collections fail mid-plan with a cancelled mandate.
- You need to move a customer to a new bank account.

## When it doesn't

- Mandates cancelled by the customer themselves; that needs a conversation first.
- Insufficient-funds failures; the mandate is still alive there.
- One-off payment failures unrelated to the mandate.

## Tool + version compatibility

GoCardless mandates and payments (all current API versions).

### "gocardless mandate cancelled bank account closed"
Pause collections and set up a fresh mandate.

### "gocardless customer changed bank account"
New account means a new mandate; the old one cannot be revived.

### "gocardless cancelled mandate resume payments"
Resume only after the replacement mandate is active.

## Why it happens

A GoCardless mandate authorizes debits from one specific bank account. When the customer closes that account, the mandate dies with it; there is nothing to retry against. Every further collection attempt fails and can generate fees or customer frustration. The only path forward is a new mandate on the new account, which the customer must authorize themselves.

## Edge cases / pitfalls

- Never bulk-collect missed payments without telling the customer first; surprise debits trigger disputes.
- Keep the old mandate record for audit; cancelled does not mean deletable.
- If the customer is unresponsive, follow your dunning policy; the mandate issue does not pause the debt.
- Agent payment jobs must check mandate status before every collection run, not just at setup.

## Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_OdgyeezFFYiWCemusR89eg