Payment Methods

1. Credit / debit card:

• for on-line filing of B1 annual returns, C1 forms and Business Name applications through CORE at https://core.cro.ie/Main/index.jsp,
• for filing submissions and purchasing documents in the CRO Public Office,
• for making searches and purchasing documents on-line,
• for making a deposit to a Customer Account.
  
  NB: Only "Chip-and-Pin" credit or debit cards can be accepted for payment by the CRO.
  
  2. Customer Accounts:

• when filing documents on-line through software packages - the fees are automatically charged to a Customer Account.
• when filing on-line through CORE - the presenter should tick the box and insert a PIN to authorise the deduction of the fee from their Account at the capture stage.
• when filing manual/ paper documents - the fee can be charged to a Customer Account by attaching a Payment Authorisation Form (PAF) to the document.
• Customer Accounts can be set up on-line and deposits can be made to Accounts on-line - go to CRO Accounts System.

3. Postal money order/ bank draft/ cheque:

• the postal money order, bank draft or cheque should be made payable to the Companies Registration Office (full title);
• foreign currency, sterling and euro items drawn on banks outside the Republic of Ireland are not acceptable, because of service charges for cheque clearance;
• payments from outside the Republic of Ireland for document registration, document requests and miscellaneous services must be on a euro denominated bank draft drawn on a bank in the Irish clearing system. 
      

4. Cash

• it is not advisable to send cash by post and CRO accepts no liability for cash lost in the postal system.

'e-Day’ - 19 SEPTEMBER 2014

The National Payments Plan (NPP) seeks to reduce the cost of Ireland’s payment system through the increased use of more efficient payment methods which will lead to increased competitiveness and efficiency. The NPP estimates that if Ireland were to match best practice in Europe, savings of up to €1 billion per annum could be made across the economy.The particular focus of ‘e-Day’ - 19 September 2014 - is to encourage the business community to migrate from cheque usage to payment by electronic means.

The approach of the CRO is to build on the impetus of ‘e-Day’ with a view to phasing out the handling of cheques and other paper forms of payment entirely from 2016 on.

The CRO currently provides a number of electronic payment options such as credit/debit cards and Customer Accounts which can be set up on-line and topped up on-line by credit/debit card. The CRO also plans to provide additional electronic payment options such as Single and Recurring Direct Debit Mandates during the course of 2015.

CRO requests all customers who currently pay by cheque to begin the process of moving away from cheques and other paper forms of payment by:

(a) familiarising yourselves with CRO’s electronic methods of payment, and

(b) making whatever changes in procedures are necessary within your firm/company to allow you to discontinue using cheques and other paper forms of payment from 19 September 2014, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Bounced Cheques

In order to address a growing problem with dishonoured (ie bounced) cheques, the following measures are being strictly enforced by CRO with immediate effect:

(1) CRO will no longer accept cheques from companies/ presenters who have defaulted on payment in the past. In such cases, until such time as the outstanding debt to CRO is cleared, payment for all future filings must be by cash, postal money order or bank draft.

(2) CRO will reject submissions where a cheque bounces. Where a cheque used to pay for a submission is returned uncashed by the bank, the submission will be rejected for registration unless the cheque is replaced by cash, money/ postal order or bank draft within 14 days.

CRO would appreciate your cooperation in adhering to these rules.

Link to: Opening a Customer account with the CRO