Absolutely. I should have made this clearer, I've added a note in the first para of the post.

The intention was not to attack any trade but to highlight a worrying misconception that seems to be particularly prevalent amongst MBA grads and ex-consultants. A segment that I feel my background makes me particularly able to comment on.

New grads in any field are kind of like this. MBAs that came from business first are probably more humble then this, or already spoken for. They do probably have some value for longer term planning or networking. But that should be in addition to raw technical talent or raw business acumen to get the current job done.

Totally agree with this

Thanks Viktoras! Just drop us an email at help@gocardless.com if we can do anything to help

As a heads up I'm from GC but as quick responses:

1) It's little known but the protection under DD are arguably stronger than those under cc (http://www.bacs.co.uk/bacs/businesses/directdebit/collecting...); but your point still holds for as long as this remains little known ;)

2) Fair point, although this varies a lot by country (consider CC usage in Germany) and is not the case for B2B transactions

3) No it doesn't. There's a pan-European ACH network (SEPA DD), also if you look at PayPal they offer Bank transfer in US & Europe using ACH in a similar way