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Vopay.com Reveal's 5 Things About ACH Payments You Probably Didn’t Know

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Vopay.com Reveal's 5 Things About ACH Payments You Probably Didn’t Know

Have you heard of ACH payments but are not sure what they are? Do you wonder how they work and what makes ACH better than other types of payment methods?


If you want to learn what ACH is all about, read on.


1. What is an ACH payment?


An ACH payment is a type of electronic transaction where funds are transferred digitally from one bank to another through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network in the United States. These payments are used by businesses to make direct deposits of employee wages, tax refunds, benefits, and by individuals to pay for power or other utility bills online.


2. What are the types of ACH transactions?


There are two types of ACH transactions processed by the ACH Network. They are called ACH direct deposits and ACH direct payments.


ACH direct deposits refer to ACH transactions initiated by a business to a consumer. Examples include paychecks, tax refunds, and reimbursed expenses. They can also be made by a government entity to a consumer, such as government benefits.


ACH direct payments, on the other hand, are used by businesses and individuals to send funds. Examples include paying your power, water, or Internet bills online via your bank account, and sending money from your bank account to the bank account of a friend or family member.


3. How do ACH payments work?


Every time an ACH transaction is processed by an ACH payment gateway, the process usually goes like this:

· A business, individual, bank, or other entity, called an originator, makes an ACH transaction.

· An entry is submitted by the originator’s bank, which is called the Originating Depository Financial Institution or ODFI.

· The ACH entries submitted by the ODFI are sent to an ACH operator in batches according to a predetermined timetable.


· The ACH operator within the ACH payment gateway network sorts through the batches of ACH entries and forwards them to their receiving banks, which are also called Receiving Depository Financial Institutions or RDFIs.

· The RDFIs determine which ACH transactions are deposits and which are payments, and debits and credits the receiving accounts accordingly.


4. How safe are ACH transactions?


The ACH network is regulated by the US federal government and ACH’s own National Automated Clearing House Association, and it strictly adheres to enforced rules and guidelines to ensure the safety and security of all sensitive information collected to process transactions. Compared to other methods of payment, such as credit cards, debit cards, and checks, ACH transactions have a reduced risk of loss and fraudulent activity.


5. What benefits can you get from using ACH?


Many businesses and consumers choose ACH as their go-to payment method because of the benefits it offers, such as:


Convenience– You can set up your ACH payments to happen automatically so that you do not have to manually initiate a transaction each time you need to make a payment.


Fast processing – Compared to checks that take days to be processed and posted, transferring funds from one bank account to another via ACH occurs in a matter of seconds.


Low cost – ACH transaction fees are lower than the fees charged when you use credit cards and debit cards.


Website: https://vopay.com/ach/

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