ACH Direct Debit is a popular payment method used in the United States and Puerto Rico as an alternative to credit and debit cards. The payments are processed via the Automated Clearing House (ACH), which is an electronic network for processing financial transactions.
To accept ACH Direct Debit payments, you must have a registered business entity in the United States.
Both one-off and recurring payments are supported by ACH. Due to the risk of chargebacks, we don't recommend using ACH Direct Debit for one-off payments.
To advice chargebacks we advise that Submerchants always have a singed agreement with end customer.
The ACH network is unable to provide real-time authorisations. This means there is a risk of transactions being reversed if, for example, the bank account has insufficient funds. Additionally, the shopper can initiate a chargeback up to 60 days from the initial date of the direct debit payment.
While providing ACH to your clients, they need to contact their bank and allowlist the company ID: 8263863381. This will avoid any failed/rejected direct debits.
Common ACH Return Codes
If you received an ACH return code and are not sure why the payment didn’t go through, this quick guide to the most common ACH return codes can help.
R01 / Insufficient funds
The customer’s bank account does not have sufficient funds to complete the ACH transaction. In PaySimple, you’ll see this displayed as “Returned NSF”.
You could try the transaction twice again within 30 days of the original authorization date. You may want to request a different form of payment from the customer or agree on a date when funds will again be available so that you can manually re-submit the transaction.
R02 / Account closed
The customer’s bank account is now closed, so this and future ACH payment attempts will not go through.
Contact your customer to request a different payment method or to set up the ACH payment using their new bank account information.
R03 / No account, unable to locate account
This means that the account number or routing number you entered does not match the customer name, or that this is not an existing account. This may be due to a simple typo or miscommunication with the customer.
Check the routing number, account number, and customer name carefully to make sure they are correct. You may need to contact your customer to confirm this information or ask them for a voided check so you can confirm it yourself. You can then submit a new payment with the correct information.
R04 / Invalid account number
Either the bank account number or routing number you’ve entered isn’t correct, possibly because you didn’t enter the right number of digits or it didn’t pass the check digit validation.
Check the routing number and account number carefully to make sure they are correct. If necessary, contact the customer to confirm the exact routing and bank account number, or ask them for a voided check so you can confirm it yourself. You can then submit a new payment with the correct information.
R20 / Non-transaction account
The bank account you’ve entered does not allow ACH payments.
Contact your customer to set up a different bank account for ACH transactions, and make sure that account is enabled for ACH. If that’s not possible, you can request a different form of payment.
It's important to note that weekends and bank holidays are not considered business days in the context of ACH transfers.