ACH/ECP

ACH (Automated Clearing House), sometimes referred to as electronic check processing, e-Check, or ECP, is an alternative to credit card payments. It is an online payment method where money is electronically withdrawn from your shopper’s bank account and then deposited into the merchant’s own bank account.

ACH/ECP transactions are monitored by our built-in fraud prevention capabilities, just like credit card transactions. This payment method is supported for US transactions.

Benefits

• Boost your sales by reaching additional shoppers who do not use credit cards or other payment methods.
• Eliminate the need for paper checks and instead enable customers to provide their payment info online.
• Store shopper account information for easier repeat purchases.
• Enjoy transaction costs that are typically lower than credit card transactions.
• Reduce issues with failed payments due to failed or invalid cards, since checking accounts do not have an expiration date, and your shoppers rarely switch banks.
• Solution for B2B transactions and other payments for high-cost items where a credit card limit could be exceeded.
• Account validation ensures your shopper's bank account exists and is in good standing before we send the transaction for processing.

Settlement Timing

An ACH transaction must undergo an approval process before it is settled. The approval timeline is determined by the settlement timing and the cutoff time.

Settlement timing is the length of time from when an ACH transaction is initiated to when it is approved. BlueSnap's standard settlement type is T+3, which means the settlement timing is the day that the transaction is initiated plus three business days.

The cutoff time is a deadline that determines whether BlueSnap submits the transaction to the bank on the current or next business day. BlueSnap's cutoff time is 6PM PST.

For example, if your shopper initiates a transaction at 5PM PST on Monday, then BlueSnap submits the payment to the shopper's bank on Monday. Because the settlement timing is T+3, the transaction is approved by Thursday. If your shopper initiates a transaction at 7PM PST on Monday, then BlueSnap does not submit the transaction to the shopper's bank until the following business day (Tuesday). The T+3 settlement timing means that the transaction is approved by Friday.

Processing Flow

These are the main steps involved in processing ACH transactions:

1. The merchant receives the shopper’s authorization for the ACH entry by entering their bank information and authorizing the debit on the checkout page.

2. When the shopper clicks Next, the transaction is placed and BlueSnap verifies that the shopper's bank account and routing numbers are valid.

   • If they are valid, BlueSnap creates an invoice in pending status and sends the transaction for processing.
   • If they are not valid or the account is not in good standing, an error message is displayed to your shopper and the transaction is not sent for processing.

3. For most payment rejections, BlueSnap will be notified within 3 business days. If BlueSnap does not receive a rejection within 3 business days, the invoice will be approved. If BlueSnap receives a rejection after 3 business days, BlueSnap removes the funds from your account, and the invoice status is updated to "refunded".

4. The invoice status will update to reflect whether it was approved or rejected.

📘

Note

• We recommend delivering the product only after the approval has been received.
• BlueSnap Declines: We have improved our validation, making it stricter and more comprehensive. With these validations in place, there is less of a chance of rejection from the banks. You might see higher decline rates from Bluesnap, but keep in mind that these declines act as protection from a rejection fee, since the transaction likely would have been declined by the bank.

Your shopper has 60 days to dispute the debit on their account. If this occurs, BlueSnap removes the funds from your account, and the invoice status is updated to refunded. Please note that some banks might allow a longer timeframe for reversals.

✅

Resolving payment rejections

Payments can be rejected for a variety of reasons, including insufficient funds. To resolve a payment rejection, you can provide an alternative payment method and resubmit the charge.

BlueSnap Checkout and API Integrations

ACH/ECP transactions are supported in all of BlueSnap's integrations.

To process ACH transactions, make sure that you enable this payment method as described in Enabling Payment Methods.

If you are using BlueSnap Checkout, the ACH payment option automatically appears to shoppers in the US once it has been enabled.

If you are using BlueSnap's API, please see the API Guide for ACH.

Subscriptions

BlueSnap supports subscriptions with ACH. Please note that subscriptions with ACH do not support the following:

• Plans with a billing frequency of daily or weekly
• Trial periods
• Automated retries in BlueSnap's Subscription engine
• On-demand $0 transactions

Refunds

Refunds can be processed only after your shopper's account has been debited and the invoice status has changed to approved. Please note that if you request a refund while the invoice is pending (before your shopper's account has been debited), you will receive an error message informing you the transaction has not yet been settled.

If a refund is requested after your shopper's account has been debited, BlueSnap will remove the funds from your account and the invoice status will update to refunded.

You can issue a refund through the Merchant Portal or the Payment API. For details, see Issuing a Refund.

Sandbox Testing

You may use the following bank credentials to test various scenarios.

Simulate format validation error
Account number: 123456789
Routing number: 123456789

Simulate declined transaction*
Account number: 123456789
Routing number: 987654321

Simulate approved transaction*
Account number: 223344556
Routing number: 998877665

*After the initial transaction request, you will see the status change within 15 minutes.

Return Codes

A transaction may be returned or reversed by a bank for various reasons. The following is a list of ACH return codes, or reasons for reversal: