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Product Corner: The ACH Merchant Account from VoPay: US Bank Payments Reimagined

Posted on March 12, 2024

Through VoPay’s expansive network of alternative payment methods, businesses can access their own dedicated ACH Merchant Account for sending and collecting bank account payments in the US.

An ACH Account through VoPay not only provides access to the primary US bank account payment network, it also gives businesses the power to automate their payment workflows and add smart fraud reduction tools through our API-first technology.

We’ve taken this legacy payment rail and completely reimagined what’s possible in today’s digital era, giving organizations a plug-and-play ACH product built for the 21st century.

ACH Network Basics

The ACH Network is operated and regulated by Nacha, who established the network in the 1970s. The network serves as the beating heart of the US electronic payment system, moving around 30 billion payments annually, totaling an eyewatering $76 trillion. To put that in perspective, the combined total of all card transactions annually in the US is around $10 trillion.

ACH Use Cases

Every day millions of people rely on the service to receive wages, pay for bills, settle healthcare payments, and send payments online. The B2B component of the payment system has been growing steadily year over year, as businesses shift away from checks and cash toward a digitized payment process.

ACH Network Limits

Both Standard ACH and Same Day ACH transactions have a network limit of 1 million dollars in both directions, i.e. credits and debits. If your business is approved, VoPay can enable you to transact up to the hard network limits of 1 million dollars.

ACH Rules & Regulations

Nacha oversees the network and defines the roles and responsibilities of each participant on the network. Among these regulations are several fraud mitigation steps that must be taken, including explicit rules that ACH Originators of WEB debit entries must have an account validation step in place to limit fraudulent transactions. Thankfully, VoPay prides itself on being a frontrunner in bank account validation technology, which means we meet and exceed the guidelines put in place by Nacha.

bank verification

Standard ACH vs VoPay ACH

VoPay layers multiple process enhancements, payment workflows, and risk reduction tools on top of the standard ACH payment rails. It also addresses the three biggest issues that businesses face when using the Network through traditional banks: scalability, visibility, and brand identity.

  1. Scalability

Set up custom payment flows at scale to match your business model. Bulk ACH payments through a business bank account require you to send a batch file containing your transaction details, which means you have to either complete the file manually or build your own input system.

With VoPay, we create, verify, and process the batch file automatically in the background. You can set up the batch of ACH payments using our API, or through the VoPay Portal in just a few steps. All of your contacts are saved in the Portal ready to be used, and you can set up recurring and scheduled payment flows with ease.

  1. Transaction Visibility

When processing ACH transactions through the bank, visibility is limited, especially when dealing with bulk payments. Depending on your bank, you may only get a status notification for the whole batch, or a limited confirmation status for each item in the batch.

With a VoPay ACH Merchant Account, you get detailed transaction statuses at the individual contact level and see what stage each transaction is in the network rather than only when the process is completed. Our advanced reporting systems help businesses save valuable time with reconciliations. 

  1. Brand Identity

In an era where identity is everything for businesses, payments are no exception. Cumbersome payment gateways with third-party branding lead to an ambiguous and disjointed experience for customers, partners, and suppliers. 

VoPay lets you customize your front-end payment experience and white-label everything to match your brand, including payment requests, bank connection workflows and even onboarding and KYC processes.

Same Day ACH Payments

Transaction times for our regular ACH Merchant Account hover at around 3 business days, but if you want to move funds faster, our Same Day ACH Account comes with all the benefits of the VoPay technology layered with payment settlement on the day of origination. 

The Same Day ACH Network operates in a very similar way to the Standard Network, with the same funding limit of $1 million and the same operating regulations. With a VoPay Account, you send funds in the morning to virtually any US bank account, and the funds will be deposited in the afternoon. What's more, you’ll have full visibility when sending bulk payments and can leverage VoPay’s workflows to set up scheduled payments.

same day ach

Same Day ACH payments total around $1.7 trillion annually, and while this is comparatively less than its 3-day counterpart, the rate at which it has been growing has been extensive. Last year's payment value rocketed 83% year-on-year, helped in large part by the network upping the single transaction limit from $100,000 to $1 million.

Get Started with VoPay ACH Payments

As you scale your transaction volume, you need a merchant account that can keep up. Book a demo now with our Fintech Advisors to see firsthand how we’ve taken ACH payments into the 21st century on the VoPay Network.

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