What is ACH and how can it help your business?

ACH stands for Automated Clearing House and it refers to a secure network that ties banks to one another. This network can be used for a variety of bank to bank transactions such as: debit or credit card payment processing; electronic payments, direct deposits. Automated clearing house transactions originated in the 1970's when they were introduced as an alternative to cheque processing. Over time however it has advanced and became one of the most common methods for businesses to do business with one another. Typically ACH transactions will take slightly longer to carry out than direct transfers, or credit / debit card payments, but they are also considerably cheaper. The price benefits can have fairly substantial benefits for high volume customers.



If you run a business that requires a large number of financial transactions to be processed at regular intervals automated clearing house payment and / or collection services could provide a great boost to your company. Much like other forms of transaction you will need a business merchant account through which to conduct the transfers. While this can be set up manually often the easiest way is to look for a payment service provider that can integrate all of the services you require. Some of the key benefits of finding a payment service provider that can set up ACH transactions are that:



1) An ACH module can offer a high level of security that will protect all of your transactions and data.


2) ACH transactions can be initiated and processed at any point during the day.


3) ACH payments are less costly than both cheques and other electronic transfers.


4) A good payment service provider will supply a secure payment gateway through which to process transactions.



So transactions processed using automated clearing house are not only more streamlined than other batch transfer methods but they are also less costly. I recently decided I wanted to change the way I processed financial transactions for my online business. After a lot of investigation I was able to find a payment service provider that offered ACH amongst the traditional payment methods. They were able to provide me with a totally secure payment gateway through which I am able to process any type of transaction that me and my clients desire.