Creating a Creditor#

In this step of the GoCardless Embed guide you will create a creditor to represent one of your merchants.

By having a creditor for each merchant you will be able to pay out separately for each creditor, customise the beneficiary name the payer sees, and perform reconciliation on a per-merchant basis.

POST /creditors#

You can create a creditor by performing a POST request to the /creditors endpoint. The required parameters are:

Parameter	Description
name	The trading name of the creditor.
creditor_type	The type of business of the creditor. One of: `individual`, `company`, `charity`, `partnership`, and `trust`.
country_code	The country that the creditor is registered in, as a ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code.

Examples of how to make this request using the GoCardless client libraries:

HTTPBashPHPPythonRubyJavaJavaScript.NETGo

POST https://api.gocardless.com/creditors HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json
{
  "creditors": {
    "name": "Example Ltd",
    "country_code": "GB",
    "creditor_type": "company"
  }
}

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Location: /creditors/CR123
Content-Type: application/json
{
  "creditors": {
    "id": "CR123",
    "created_at": "2017-02-16T12:34:56.000Z",
    "name": "Example Ltd",
    "creditor_type": "company",
    "country_code": "GB",
    ...
  }
}

curl --silent \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Gocardless-Version: 2015-07-06" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${API_ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
  "https://api.gocardless.com/creditors" \
  -d @- << EOF
{
  "creditors": {
    "name": "Example Ltd",
    "country_code": "GB",
    "creditor_type": "company"
  }
}
EOF

$client = new \GoCardlessPro\Client([
    'access_token' => 'your_access_token_here',
    'environment' => \GoCardlessPro\Environment::SANDBOX
]);

$client->creditors()->create([
    'params' => [
        'name' => 'Example Ltd',
        'country_code' => 'GB',
        'creditor_type' => 'company'
    ]
]);

import gocardless_pro
client = gocardless_pro.Client(access_token="your_access_token_here", environment='sandbox')

client.creditors.create(params={
    "name": "Example Ltd",
    "country_code": "GB",
    "creditor_type": "company"
})

@client = GoCardlessPro::Client.new(
  access_token: "your_access_token",
  environment: :sandbox
)

@client.creditors.create(
  params: {
    name: "Example Ltd",
    country_code: "GB",
    creditor_type: "company"
  }
)

import static com.gocardless.GoCardlessClient.Environment.SANDBOX;
String accessToken = "your_access_token_here";
GoCardlessClient client = GoCardlessClient
    .newBuilder(accessToken)
    .withEnvironment(SANDBOX)
    .build();

Creditor creditor = client.creditors().create()
    .withName("Example Ltd")
    .withCountryCode("GB")
    .withCreditorType("company")
    .execute();

const constants = require("gocardless-nodejs/constants");
const gocardless = require("gocardless-nodejs");
const client = gocardless("your_access_token_here", constants.Environments.Sandbox);

const creditor = await client.creditors.create({
  name: "Example Ltd",
  country_code: "GB",
  creditor_type: "company",
});

String accessToken = "your_access_token";
GoCardlessClient gocardless = GoCardlessClient.Create(accessToken, Environment.SANDBOX);

var creditorRequest = new GoCardless.Services.CreditorCreateRequest()
{
    Name = "Example Ltd",
    CountryCode = "GB",
    CreditorType = "company",
};

var creditorResponse = await gocardless.Creditors.CreateAsync(creditorRequest);
GoCardless.Resources.Creditor creditor = creditorResponse.Creditor;

package main

import (
    gocardless "github.com/gocardless/gocardless-pro-go/v6"
)

accessToken := "your_access_token_here"
config, err := gocardless.NewConfig(accessToken, gocardless.WithEndpoint(gocardless.SandboxEndpoint))
if err != nil {
    fmt.Printf("got err in initialising config: %s", err.Error())
    return
}
client, err := gocardless.New(config)
if err != nil {
    fmt.Println("error in initialisating client: %s", err.Error())
    return
}

creditorCreateParams := gocardless.CreditorCreateParams{
    Name: "Example Ltd",
    CountryCode: "GB",
    CreditorType: "company",
}

creditor, err := client.Creditors.Create(context, creditorCreateParams)

The API will respond with a creditor object containing a creditor ID starting with 'CR'. This ID will be used in subsequent steps.

For more details, see the API reference docs for this endpoint.

What's next?#

Adding a Creditor Bank Account

Add a bank account for each merchant so GoCardless can settle funds to the right place.

Learn more

Setting a Scheme Identifier

Request a custom scheme identifier so your merchant's name appears on payers' bank statements.

Learn more