How Kivra is changing consumer behaviour with seamless recurring payments

Key results:

• 68% increase in recurring payment activations in four months for partner GodEl
  
• Reminder rates for GodEl dropped to 1% for recurring payments, compared to 10% for manual
  
• 71% of users said direct debit in Kivra is easier than setting it up through their bank
  
  

When consumers are given the chance to set up recurring payments in a way that feels seamless, they do.

That’s exactly what Kivra has proven in Sweden. By combining its trusted digital mailbox platform with Trustly’s intuitive recurring payments flow, Kivra has turned one-off bill payers into recurring payers – changing customer behaviour in a matter of months.

Kivra always planned to move beyond one-off invoice payments and offer a recurring experience. The key question was how, because only a truly simple experience would convince people to switch to recurring payments. 

With Trustly, the answer became clear: a recurring flow that is simple, transparent and fully native to Kivra.

The challenge: Trust was there, adoption wasn’t

Kivra is Sweden’s leading digital mailbox, connecting more than 50,000 organisations with over six million users. Citizens receive everything from letters and bills, to receipts and payslips, all in the same app, and millions already use BankID – Sweden’s national digital identity – to quickly pay their invoices.

But until recently, all of those payments were one-off. Customers had to approve invoices manually, no matter how routine.

Many of the companies that use Kivra’s platform to send bills already offer a recurring way to pay through autogiro, Sweden’s traditional direct debit. But adoption is slow, because setting it up means leaving Kivra altogether. Customers have to log into their bank, search for “autogiro” (a term unfamiliar to many younger users), and complete forms that differ from bank to bank.

Even when successful, the experience is opaque: customers can’t easily see when payments will be withdrawn or how to stop them.

By converting manual payers to automatic payments, companies gain faster, more predictable cash flow. They protect revenue from missed or delayed payments and reduce reliance on reminders.

The shift also cuts support calls and frees internal resources, creating a smoother experience for both companies and customers.

“One hundred percent of customers receiving an invoice in Kivra paid manually,” says Magnus Ekman, Product Manager at Kivra. “That made them the perfect target group for a simpler, smarter direct debit.”

With so much trust already established – 100% of users paying their bills in Kivra – the opportunity was huge. If Kivra could introduce recurring payments in a way that was simple and transparent, both consumers and companies would see immediate benefit. But to persuade companies to adopt it, the new flow needed to deliver a true performance upgrade over legacy autogiro (direct debit).

The solution: Recurring payments, natively in Kivra

That’s where Trustly came in.

With Trustly’s recurring payments flow, customers with GodEl – one of Sweden’s leading energy retailers and the first company to adopt the solution – can now set up autogiro (direct debit) directly inside Kivra. They receive a bill, tap once to activate recurring payments, and confirm instantly with BankID. There’s no detour through bank websites, no forms to fill out, and no waiting days for activation.

Once activated, payments run automatically. Customers see each scheduled charge in their Kivra feed, with the option to pause or cancel at any time. Behind the scenes, Trustly’s engine optimises the collection process – delivering payment success rates of up to 99.6%.

The results for GodEl in just the first four months have been striking:

• 68% more people signed up for recurring payments through Kivra than before through autogiro (direct debit).
  
  
• Reminder rates dropped to just 1%, compared to 10% for manual payers
  
  
• Payment-related support calls fell, freeing teams to focus on higher-value work

“The conversion rate was way higher than we expected,” says Björn Björnson, Head of Business Development at GodEl. “I think there was pent-up demand – people had considered it before, but the barriers were too high.”

A model built to scale

The impact goes beyond GodEl.

For companies, Kivra recurring payments mean predictable revenue, faster settlement and fewer missed bills – without needing to make changes to their backend systems. For Kivra, it cements its role as the central hub for Sweden’s most important payments, deepening trust with consumers and proving new value to its company partners.

And this is only the beginning. Electricity bills are the first use case, but Kivra plans to extend recurring payments to insurance premiums, subscription services, unemployment funds – any recurring cost where simplicity and reliability matter. With over six million users, the potential savings in time, cost and friction are enormous.

“Our goal is to be the obvious choice for direct debit in Sweden,” Ekman says. “We want every recurring payment in Kivra to be as easy as this.”

With Trustly powering the flow, that goal is well within reach.

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