What is an e-Check?
Over the past decade the use of paper check have started to go down, banks and echeck payment processing institutions have come up with new payment methods with the help of new technologies. E-checks are an alternate to old paper checks, even though still people use checks for their payments all around the globe, the time taken to process and clear the fund is longer compared to all the other online payment methods, e-checks are faster processing and deposits than traditional paper checks. E-Check is similar to paper check but rather the customer provides their details which they enter in a check, online and the transaction is carried out electronically with the help of ACH (automated clearing house). Customer must have a checking account to avail the e-check service and it only takes 24-48 hours for the transaction to process and the fund to be credited to merchants account.
E-Check Processing
E-checks are processed by Automated Clearing House – ACH. Once the customer enter their banking information such as banking account number and other details required for echeck processing. Once the details are entered an electronic request is generated to customer’s bank for initiating the transaction. Once the customer’s bank account confirms and initiates the transaction, fund is deducted and transferred to merchant’s bank account. E-checks are preferred for recurring payments such as mortgages, utility bills etc. The processing expenses of ACH & e-Check are lesser compared to cards. Likewise E-checks can help the merchant reduce the risk. As we know the dispute or charge back time for E-checks are 60 days while cards have 180 days.