Wondering whether you should use ACH electronic debit for payment processing or not? What benefits or weaknesses does ACH billing have? Well, no worries! This article will tell you what ACH debit means and where you can get approved for ACH transactions fast and easily.
ACH Electronic Debit: How to Make Reliable ACH Transactions
ACH (Automated Clearing House) payments are being processed electronically and remove money right from your checking account. So, no need to write out a paper check or make payments using a debit/credit card since you deal with automatic removal of funds. ACH can make things easier for you. However, like with anything in nature, there may also be some drawbacks.
To be more specific, ACH debits occur when the merchant electronically withdraws funds from a bank account. This is like deducting funds in a certain amount. Be aware that this type of transactions refers both to the public and private sector.
To make an ACH payment, you should authorize your biller. As a rule, you’ll need to do this once you’ve provided your bank account and routed numbers for your checking account. To give your authorization, you’ll need to enter into an agreement with the biller. Mostly, you’ll be given an online or paper form, but you can also do this using the phone.
Be aware of the following payment types:
- Automatic Payments
In this case, your biller will remove funds from your account when it’s due time for paying the bill, which will usually happen each month.
- On-Demand Payments
In this case, you just establish a link between your biller and your bank account, thus getting an opportunity to take control over your account.
To enjoy secure, affordable, and reliable ACH electronic debit, consider applying to eMerchantBroker.com, the #1 high risk processor in the US. EMB is rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and A by Card Payment Options. With EMB, you can be sure to get the right payment processing solutions geared to your own specific business needs since eMerchantBroker.com talks to each merchant to offer the best deal.
To start, you’ll need to provide authorization through mail order, fax, or face-to-face. The transaction information will then be uploaded to the processor either via a payment gateway, a virtual terminal, or a batch file transmission. Finally, the funds will electronically be debited from the target checking account.
ACH Billing: Important to Know
Here’re several important point, including benefits, to bear in mind concerning ACH billing:
- The direct deposit mentioned above is also referred to as “credit to the account,” as opposed to a debit, which implies fund withdrawal from the account.
- Mostly, ACH transactions are more affordable for merchants than credit/debit card transactions if the merchant is being charged a flat transaction fee. The larger the average ticket, the more the savings.
- With ACH billing, you don’t need to worry about incurring a non-qualified surcharge on transactions.
- Both ACH billing and debit card transactions come out of the customer’s bank account, however, they feature a different processing form.
- You can “forget” about making a payment.
- Don’t worry about writing out checks.
- You can easily do without payments in the mail and paying postage.
- Don’t worry about when the payments will be delivered by the postal service or lost mail.
- Ease of payment tracking.
- More environmentally friendly.
- Sometimes, ACH payments will return as non-sufficient funds or NSF.
- Like with any other type of payment, you can’t do without having authorization from your customers.
And more.
Some of the drawbacks include:
- You’re not the only person accessing the information about your bank account (plus your account number)
- Being charged more than usual because of the biller’s error or even ending up with an empty account
- Ending up with overdrawing your account because of the lack of enough funds in checking
- Forgetting what you’re paying for in case you don’t see the bills come through, and continue paying for services no longer used.
As you see, ACH debit is like ACH credit: only there’s one striking difference. ACH credit removes funds from the originator’s account, but with ACH debit, the funds are “pulled” in a debit transaction.