How is ACH Payment Processing Priced?

01 05, 2012 ACH

Rates for ACH payment processing are based on the following factors:

  1. The risk associated with a particular business type.  As one would expect, high risk ACH processing incurs higher rates than standard risk processing.  Standard risk ACH payments are generally priced at a flat rate per transaction.  High risk ACH usually has a discount rate assessed as well as a per transaction fee.
  2. The number of transactions being processed through an account.  The more transactions, the lower the rates.
  3. How authorization for the ACH transaction is obtained.  For example, rates for ACH processing where a written authorization has been associated with the transaction are lower than rates for internet or telephone transactions.

Other fees associated with ACH processing are:

  1. Returns for non-sufficient funds (NSF) or bounced checks
  2. Returns for unauthorized transactions (consumer revokes the transaction)
  3. Monthly account or gateway fee
  4. Optional advanced account verification services.  For example, early warning verification uses a variety of negative and positive databases to verify the account is open, has no bad checks written against it, and has money in it (although it does not “freeze” the funds for a particular transaction)
  5. Some processors also assess a one-time software license fee or account setup fee