While ACH payments may not have the immediacy of a debit card payment, they’re still significantly faster than processing a paper check. Plus, customers may appreciate the convenience of setting up recurring payments to establish a regular billing schedule. ACH payments allow an originator to either credit or debit, with permission, the bank account of a recipient through their respective financial institutions. These transactions are routed through an ACH operator, which sorts them and sends them to the recipient’s bank or credit union.
What Are ACH Batch Times?
Our step-by-step ACH guide will help you get started and show you the benefits of this payment method. PayPal accounts don’t facilitate ACH payments, but PayPal-owned Braintree does. Through PayPal, you can be paid via credit or debit card or directly from a payer’s PayPal balance to yours. If you’ve ever been paid through “direct deposit” from a job or client, the payer likely used the ACH network to facilitate it. Automated transfers among your financial accounts—for example, from your checking account into an IRA at a different institution—usually take place through ACH, too. If you sell services and invoice for your work, ACH transfers are a great way to get paid.
National Processing: Best Merchant Account/ACH Combo
ACH payments specifically use the Automated Clearing House network, which is not true of other types of EFTs. ACH payments can be initiated through most financial institutions’ online member portals or over the phone. The only information you usually need is the amount being sent and the recipient’s routing and account numbers.
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Businesses can create special features that benefit users when collecting ACH payments. Watch the video below to see what a modern pay-by-bank experience with Plaid looks like, whether that be via ACH or another bank payment rail. Tom is a fintech industry writer who has written whitepapers and articles for Plaid since 2021. His work has been featured in publications like Forbes, Fortune, and Inc. He’s passionate about the freedom that financial services and technology can create and is currently a Content Strategist at Plaid. With Stax, you pay for access to processing, not a percent markup.
It’s easy to accept ACH payments through your business bank account. Companies of all sizes have long used the ACH Network to receive and make payments digitally–from payroll deposits and tax refunds to vendor transactions. In the third quarter of 2024 alone, B2B processed 1.9 billion payments through the ACH Network, marking an increase of 12.6% from Q3 2024. As a small business owner, especially if you’re running things mostly online, getting paid can sometimes feel like a challenge—and it can also get pricey.
- If you have a business checking account, you can already accept ACH payments through your bank.
- For recurring payments, customers can set up automatic ACH payments and never worry about missing a payment or incurring late fees.
- The ACH network processes payments over 23 hours on weekdays and settles them four times daily.
- Payment processing can be daunting for small business owners, but it doesn’t have to be.
- By validating bank accounts and securely processing ACH payments, HighRadius helps businesses reduce processing costs by up to 90%.
- ACH payments on Stripe cost 0.80%, capped at $5.00, with no monthly fees or verification fees.
It’s free to use, and you pay 1% per ACH transaction (minimum $1). This is often easy if you’re a freelancer, consultant or contractor working with established companies. Businesses that pay lots of vendors often have a payment system set up to facilitate ACH payments, so all you have to do is give them your bank information. Both businesses and customers have a lot of reasons to love ACH payments, but they’re not a perfect fit for every kind of business.
Final thoughts on accepting ACH payments
Answer a few questions to tell us more about what you’re looking for, and we’ll help you reach vendors who can provide you with more information, pricing, and products. Our best expert advice on how to grow your business — from attracting new customers to keeping existing customers happy and having the capital to do it. To prevent fraudulent transactions and errors, NACHA requires us to take “commercially reasonable” steps to check that routing numbers are accurate. To dispute a transaction, the customer must cite one of these three reasons in a written notice to the bank. This clear cost savings of using ACH for larger transactions applies to smaller transactions as well. Once you receive authorization, you’ll be able to proceed with the rest of the transaction.
You might do this when you’re sending money from your bank account to another company or governmental agency. In other words, a transaction in which you receive ACH payments is known as a direct deposit. This may likely be recorded on your bank statement as Certified Bookkeeper an “ACH credit,” which means you’re receiving money from another party. Accepting ACH payments can expand the number of electronic payments you offer your customers.
