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Chargebacks within ACH Payments Processing

March 23rd, 2010
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ACH processing allows a business to receive money by directly debiting a consumer or business account directly using the accord number and bank sort code.

The consumer or business is protected from unauthorized debit by having the ability to dispute a payment at their bank for 60 days from the payment. For a period of 60 days during which the authorization of a payment can be disputed or during which they may “revoke authorization”. The consumer should attempt to resolve the matter directly with the supplier but if they are unable to get a response or resolve their issue they may attempt to have the bank return the money. The consumer signs an affidavit and the bank issues a chargeback. The payments processor’s account is debited by the bank and they attempt to obtain the money from the supplying company. If a company fails and large numbers of customers request chargebacks the payments processor can be left with significant losses.

The business can to an extent try to protect itself from customers having buyers remorse and unnecessarily committing “friendly fraud” by having a physically or digitally signed agreement is mandatory for recurring payments and can go some way to defending yourself and having the chargeback reversed by your payments processor.
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eCommerce, Payments

Should I use ACH payments?

March 1st, 2010
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If you are processing payments, either collections or disbursements in tens per day or hundreds or thousands per month then you are likely to be able to reducing our invoicing, collection, reconciliation and payments processing costs by using ACH transfers.

Instead of paying, for example, 3.5% for the collection of credit card transactions (including the 18c transaction fee) you will be paying per transaction at a rate from 15 to 35c per transaction. This is typically significantly cheaper depending on your average transaction cost. Even at a 35c flat fee ACH and 18c plus 2.35% for credit card transactions ACH will be cheaper for all transactions greater than $7.23. ACH transactions are setup to either collect or receive payment based on an account number and allow your customers to pay you with an e-check process. Depending on the nature of your product or service you may be able to have people pay you on a regular schedule which will improve your internal cash management.

Additionally by sending ACH data to your bank you provide more consistent data than by paying in checks so you have are able to the extent permitted by your bank to add reference information which allows you to reconcile your banks resulting statement information.

ACH transactions are different from credit card transactions in that you aren’t reserving credit in real time and are exposed to incorrect or fraudulent account information being given to you so your ability to use ACH to receive payments will depend on the nature of your business. If you are shipping goods you may be able to wait for payment to settle before shipping or you may choose to use ACH transactions only with established customers where reduced payments costs outweigh the risk. For most businesses who are invoicing and receiving payment after providing their service or product sending ACH data to your bank is an all round win.

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