What is eCheck.Net?

eCheck.Net is a method of collecting funds from your customer's bank accounts electronically from a merchant's MOTO/eCommerce websites or from collected paper checks which are converted to an electronic check. The process for processing, setting and funding of eCheck.Net transactions is very similar to a brick-and-mortar retail storefront collecting and depositing paper checks at their bank but uses electronic, digital transfer of the data using an Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network rather than depositing paper checks via physical submission at the merchant bank. 

Due the electronic nature of collecting funds from bank accounts, there are specific rules in place by the regulating financial entities surrounding how merchants obtain authorization to charge a customer's bank account what customer data is required to do so.

For more information, please review the eCheck.Net Operating Procedures and User Guide.

How does eCheck.Net work?

1. A customer presents their bank account information for processing, specifically the ABA routing number and their bank account number.
2. Using the customer's bank account information, an electronic request is made to Authorize.Net to charge or refund the customer in the amount of the purchase, via your website or the Virtual Terminal.
3. Authorize.Net receives the electronic request and stores the transaction in the "batch" where the other transactions for the day reside.
4. At the end of each business day, a request is submitted to the customer's bank through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) to charge or refund that particular customer. This is called "settlement" or "settling your batch."
5. Because there is still manual intervention by the bank, electronic checks are not considered "real-time." The eCheck.Net system waits for the result of the transaction from the bank. This process usually takes two to three (2-3) business days, but has been known to take up to five (5) business days.
6. If sufficient funds are available in the customer's account, the funds will be deposited into your bank account on file by eCheck.Net after a seven (7) day clearing phase. If funds are not available, the customer's bank will send back a response through the ACH to Authorize.Net, and we will post the item as a return to your settlement statement. Amounts less than $1.00 will be funded with the next funding event.
7. Your eCheck.Net account balance will be updated depending on the results of the transactions.

How do I cancel eCheck.Net?

To cancel eCheck.Net, please take the following steps:

1. Log into the Merchant Interface.
2. Click Contact Us at the top.
3. Then click Support Cases under Create and Manage Support Cases on the next window.
4. You will then be taken back to the Support Centers authenticated view.
5. You will then see the option for Support Cases at the top which allow you to create new or view Support Cases.
6. Additionally you continue to have access the Knowledgebase Articles.

You will receive a reply when the eCheck.Net service has been cancelled.

When can I ship the goods to the customer?

ACH payments are not guaranteed, nor are they processed in real time. It takes 7 business days for funds to be considered collected and you should wait at least the same amount of time before shipping or giving access to merchandise purchased by eCheck.Net.

It is worth noting that even after 7 days, and even after you have been funded for an eCheck.Net transaction, a return is still possible. While returns are typically occur within a few days after settlement, they can occur for up to 120 days after settlement.  

Is the Advanced Fraud Detection Suite (AFDS) and/or Address Verification Service (AVS) available for eCheck.Net transactions?

No. The Advanced Fraud Detection Suite (AFDS) is available only for credit card transactions and AVS is not available as transactions are not processed in real-time and only the routing number can be validated at the time of submission. 

What information is needed for an authorization to ACH?

Merchants are required to obtain authorization from their customer prior to charging the customer's bank account by: 

1. Obtaining payment authorization, in written hard copy or electronic format, from the bank account holder
2. Authenticating that the customer is who they say that they are

Payment authorization must include: 

• Clear and conspicuous statement of the terms of the transaction, including amount 
• Written language displayed to the customer that is readily identifiable as an authorization by the customer to the transaction (i.e. "I authorize [Merchant] to charge my bank account"), and that is capable of being reproduced 
• Evidence of the customer's identity
• The date the authorization was granted and the effective date of the transaction (the transaction may not be processed before the effective date)
• The bank account number to be charged 
• The nine-digit ABA routing number of the customer's bank

For more information, please review the eCheck.Net Operating Procedures and User Guide.

How do I raise my eCheck.Net processing limits?

To request an increase in your eCheck.Net processing limit, please take the following steps:

1. Log into the Authorize.Net Merchant Interface.
2. Click Contact Us at the top.
3. Then click Support Cases under Create and Manage Support Cases on the next window.
4. You will then be taken back to the Support Centers authenticated view.
5. You will then see the option for Support Cases at the top which allow you to create new or view Support Cases.
6. Enter "eCheck.Net processing limits increase" in the Subject field.
7. Enter a reason for the limit increase in the Description field.
8. Click Submit.

How do I configure the merchant descriptor displayed on customers bank statements?

On the eCheck.Net application you fill out, there is a field that states: Please provide a 10-character abbreviation of your company name. This will appear on your customers' bank statements for each eCheck.Net transaction. This can also be updated by contacting us and providing with the 10-character descriptor of your choice.

 What is the minimum required information needed to process an eCheck.Net transaction?

The minimum required information to process an eCheck.Net transaction is: nine-digit ABA routing number, bank account number, bank account type (checking, business checking, or savings), the name on the bank account and the transaction amount, however to avoid transactions from being placed into an Under Review, and potentially failing review, state we would recommend that you supply as much information about the customer and their bank account as possible. 

One common reason that eCheck.Net transactions are placed in an "Under Review" state is because they do not contain complete field values and something within the transaction is a currently sanctioned entity on the OFAC (Office of Foreign Asset Control's) sanctions list. By law, we are required to validate every eCheck.Net transaction against the OFAC sanction list. When merchants are not requiring and supplying complete customer and bank fields with their eCheck.Net transactions they are far more likely to generate a partial match and be placed into a "Under Review" state for manual review, which can take up to several days and will always delay funding. This may result in a "Failed Review" or "Approved Review" based on the manual review of the transaction against current OFAC sanctions. To avoid this, to the best of the merchants ability, we would strongly recommend that merchants include all of the minimum required field data, as completely as they are able to. The minimum required information to process an eCheck.Net transaction are:

• The customer’s name as it appears on their bank account 
• The customer’s bank account number
• The type of bank account (checking, business checking, savings)
• The ABA routing number for the customer’s bank
• The amount of the transaction
• Whether the transaction is a charge or a refund

We would also strongly recommend that you supply the customer's bank account address as this can assist our Underwriting team with validating transactions flagged by the OFAC sanctions list. Doing so will help your transactions transition from "Under Review" to "Approved Review" or "Failed Review" faster. 

For more information, please review the eCheck.Net Operating Procedures and User Guide.

What transaction types are allowed with eCheck.Net?

eCheck.Net transactions should be submitted with the Authorize and Capture (authCaptureTransaction) type. 

There is no need to submit Authorization Only for eCheck.Net as no real-time validation occurs and Authorize Only eCheck.Net transactions simply will take longer to settle and fund, depending on the time they are captured (priorAuthCaptureTransaction). 

Refunds* (refundTransaction) may be submitted against successfully settled eCheck.Net transactions. However, in order for the refund to be successful, please note the following:

• You must enter the original transaction ID for the charge
• The original charge must have been run through your Authorize.Net account
• The amount must be equal to or less than the original dollar amount
• And there must be enough funds in your eCheck.Net settlement statement to cover the refund.

Note: Refunds submitted via API are only available to eCheck.Net transactions submitted with the CCD or PPD eCheck Type. Transactions submitted as ARC, BOC, TEL or WEB cannot be refunded and an error will occur if you attempt to do so as a result. Please submit all eCheck.Net refund transactions with the CCD (business checking) or PPD (personal checking or savings) type.

For more information, please review the eCheck.Net Operating Procedures and User Guide.

Do I have to receive authorization to charge the checking account?

Pursuant to Regulation E, NACHA regulations, and paragraph 12 of the eCheck.Net Merchant Agreement, you must obtain proper authorization from the customer prior to initiation of ACH debit or credit entries to the customer's bank account at any financial institution. 

For more information, please review the eCheck.Net Operating Procedures and User Guide.

What is a chargeback and how do I dispute a chargeback?

A chargeback is a customer, or at times the customer's banking institution, initiated request for return of funds from the merchant's account. The customer has 60 calendar days (beginning from the date the financial institution first made available to the customer their bank statement with the applicable charge transaction listed on it) to return any electronic ACH debit item erroneously posted to their bank account. The customer's financial institution has can request the return of funds for up to 120 days after posting to the customer account. 

You do have legal grounds to require payment from a customer through other means, but once an ACH debit transaction (for example, an eCheck.Net transaction) is returned by a bank for reasons classified as a chargeback, you cannot initiate another electronic ACH debit transaction to the customer's bank account for the same eCheck.Net transaction. Your options are limited to requesting payment by some other means from the customer or commencing legal proceedings to force payment.

Do I get a notification of returned items? (NSF, Rejected, etc.)

You are notified of returned items via email on the daily eCheck.Net settlement report. Returned items are also viewable in the Reports section of the Merchant Interface. You are not notified of rejected transactions via email or API. The settlement amount will be less than the submitted amount. You need to view the settlement batch for the date in question and see which transactions were rejected.

What does review failed mean and how do I find transactions that have failed review ?

"Review failed" means the transaction was not successfully processed. "Review failed" often happens on refund transactions where there are not enough funds available in your eCheck.Net Settlement Statement to cover the amount requested to be refunded. Transactions will also fail review when they contain customer and/or bank account information sanctioned by OFAC. 

If you have transactions that were rejected, you can view your review failed transaction by:

1. Log into the Merchant Interface.
2. Click Search from the main toolbar.
3. Select the date range.
4. Select Failed Review as the Transaction Status.
5. Click Search.

This will show all review failed transactions during the date range you selected.

What is a Notice of Change?

A Notice of Change is a transaction that is returned by the customer's bank as a notification to you that something on the transaction was corrected. The transaction was processed and the funds were withdrawn from the customer's bank account. Future transactions processed for that customer will need to submit the corrected data. 

When and how often do my eCheck.Net transactions settle?

Settlement of eCheck.Net transactions occurs daily, beginning at 8:30am Pacific. Transactions submitted prior to the batch cut-off time are sent to the bank that same day, and the time at which the batch of transactions settles becomes the time from which the seven-day funding clock begins.

The eCheck.Net system automatically calculates, down to the second, the time at which funds are considered collected and available for transfer to your merchant account. Transfer of collected funds to your merchant account occurs only on business days according to this calculation. Collected funds that show transferred on any given day will not actually be available at their financial institution until the next business day.

Please note that this calculation does not guarantee that transaction(s) will not see a Return from the customer's bank or the ACH network after funding transfer has occurred.

What is the billing reserve?

The billing reserve is a "virtual" account where we hold your fees until billing on the 1st of the month. At that time they are transferred to the billing statement to cover the fees charged for the previous month's transactions.

What is a risk reserve rate and how is it determined?

The risk reserve is a "virtual" account where we hold the risk reserve rate. How long we hold this will depend on which method you are set up with.

When we receive an eCheck.Net application, it goes through an underwriting process by our finance team. Some of the reasons you may be assessed a risk reserve include the following:

• Amount of time the company has been in business.
• Amount of time the company has conducted business with Authorize.Net.
• The condition of the financial information provided.
• The condition of the personal guarantee provided.
• The type of industry the company is in.
• The company's transaction history with Authorize.Net.
• All of these factors help to determine the risk reserve for the account.

Rolling Reserve: With a rolling reserve we will take out your risk reserve rate (a specified percentage) and hold it for a specified number of days. After the number of holding days is up, we will release the funds to your eCheck.Net settlement statement. Example: If you ran a $10.00 transaction on 10/01/07 and your reserve rate is 15%, we would transfer $1.50 (15% of $) into your risk reserve statement. If your holding days is 90 days, we would release the $1.50 into your eCheck.Net settlement statement on 01/01/08. This is an ongoing process on your account.

Fixed Reserve: With a fixed reserve you are given a reserve rate and a target amount. We will hold the reserve rate indefinitely until the account is closed or when the target rate is change

How long does it take for an eCheck.Net transaction to process and be deposited?

Seven (7) days

How can I tell if I have deposited/transferred funds from a particular eCheck.Net transaction?

There is no way to track particular eCheck.Net transactions in the deposits. You can see which batches are being deposited by clicking on the Funding Calculation Page link in the eCheck Settlement Statement.

How do I read my eCheck.Net Statement?

To determine what batches were included in a deposit click the Funding Calculation Page link.

How do I find returns?

To find returns, please take the following steps:

1. Log into the Authorize.Net Merchant Interface.
2. Click Reports from the main toolbar.
3. Click Returns from the menu on the left.
4. Choose how you want to search (Returns by Settlement Date, Batch Date or Transaction ID).
5. For Returns by Settlement Date, choose Settled or Unsettled. If Settled, choose a date or date range and click Run Report.
6. For Returns by Batch Date, choose a date or date range and click Run Report. You can also enter transaction information that will narrow the search fields.
7. For Returns by Transaction ID, enter the Transaction ID and click Run Report.

What is Intra Account Transfer?

Intra Account Transfer indicates that funds were transferred to or from the virtual balance (such as the eCheck.Net reserve).