Consumers Embrace Electronic Bill Payments

What are Direct Payments?

Direct payment is the term used for paying bills electronically through the ACH payments network.

Direct Payment goes by many names, including automatic bill payment, automatic debit, electronic bill payment, or direct debit.

Billers use direct payments for both one-time or recurring payments of all kinds, including loan and insurance payments, subscriptions, health club membership dues, utility and cable bills, and charitable contributions.

According to NACHA more than 50% of all U.S. households used direct payment for at least one recurring payment during the past year, with close to 4 billion bills being paid with direct payments. Of those consumers using direct payment, 4 out of 5 are very satisfied with the service.

Safe & Secure Payments

Electronically paying bills is quite safe. Problems with direct payment are rare. If a problem should occur, it is easy to resolve.

Customer payments are safeguarded by the Federal Reserve Board’s Regulation E. Consumers are protected from unauthorized debits from their checking and savings accounts and have the right to stop or reverse a payment they believe they did not authorize or was made in error.

Direct payments can be made on the billers’ website, through online banking bill pay, by telephone, or through a third party biller. Direct payment for recurring billing virtually eliminates late fees, which can easily amount to $30 per payment.

Conclusion

Benefits for companies that offer direct payments include

• eliminating the manual processes involved in handling check payments
• improve accuracy
• enhance efficiency
• skyrocket productivity

Are you a biller interested in a direct payment account?

Contact info@nationalach.com today

International Credits and Debits

A credit is when the bank is disbursing funds.  It is easy for banks to do an international direct deposit account for credits.  The bank knows the credit history of the customer.  It has the data to decide if the account should be credited immediately.  Or, the bank may decide to allow the customer limited use of the funds.  Or wait to disburse until after the FX settles.

A debit is when the bank collects funds.  Processing debits is more challenging than processing credits.  Debit transactions require that the bank determine the credit worthiness of both its own customer and the person on the other end of the transaction.  The bank has several choices

• Make all the funds available 2 days after the collection request. This often is standard operating procedure for transfers within a single country.
• If bank’s customer has enough money in his account or an adequate line of credit to cover any losses, a bank may decide to make funds available on international transactions as well.
• The bank can set a certain number of days.  The number is based on the clearing and float period in the other country.
• The bank may make only a percentage of funds available after a preset number of days.  Then, the bank can slowly release funds until 100% have been credited.  This can be very profitable for the bank as it takes advantage of float.

For more information, contact info@nationalach.com