ACH Payments vs Checks: When to Use Them
With businesses scrambling to optimize their stores for online purchasing methods, knowing the difference between these methods has become much more important. Automated Clearing House or ACH payments can make up a significant portion of your business’s transactions online. Optimizing your site for people who want to use an ACH transaction to pay for your products and services is essential now that everyone is inside during the coronavirus pandemic.
As a business with a merchant account online, you should know the differences between ACH vs checks and how to accept ACH payments on your platform. Here are a few of the best tips that you need to know in 2020 to stay ahead of the competition during the lockdown.
Define ACH
Payments by ACH make up an enormous number of online transactions per year. It is creticial for any business with an online component in 2020, to equip it’s website with the proper tools to make it easy for your customers to use ACH payments to buy goods or services.
ACH payment processing routes customers’ banking information so that your business can withdraw the proper funds. Ignoring ACH cards when you set up your website tends to lead to losing business.
ACH vs check
Electronic checks represent the original online payment processing method. Modern businesses don’t plan on having a ton of check payments to worry about, but old platforms may not be optimized for anything else.
If your business offers a service with recurring payments in the form of a subscription, you don’t want to focus on processing checks. While ACH transactions process payment information directly with the merchant, in the case of checks, there is a verification process through the bank that takes far longer.
Time and money are the biggest disadvantages of only accepting checks. The question of ACH vs checks in 2020 has to take these costs into account when you’re optimizing your website to accept the increased flow of payments in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown. And, of course, paper checks run the risk of transmitting coronavirus, which studies have found can live on paper for up to five days.
One of the greatest advantages of ACH payments is that they can be automated for recurring payments. While some people want to keep control of their payments by writing each check individually, those who want to make sure they never miss a payment will want to take advantage of automated ACH services, and, of course, the benefit to businesses of being able to automatically take payments every month can hardly be overstated.
The Takeaway
Any business with an online component, should consider the advantages of ACH vs check payments as well as how to optimize its website for ACH payments. The coronavirus lockdown makes this particularly relevant, but it will remain an important factor in any business’s online operations long after it has lifted.
Contact Charge.com at (888) 924-2743 to evaluate your merchant account options.