What can be easier than just sending the digital copy of your check and making a payment? If you don’t have a credit/debit card or the credit/debit card payment option isn’t working or the cross border transaction is declined, you can always rely on Echeck payment option as easy and reliable one. The question that now strikes the mind is – what is an echeck? Echeck, often termed as check 21 in the USA is a form of electronic payment funded by the customer’s bank account. The complete transaction period is around 4-6 days. In recent times, popularity of this payment option has increased multifold. Even the government and financial authorities are promoting Echeck processing as a more reliable, trustworthy and efficient payment option. Specifically, if you belong to high risk industry, Echeck payments are the best options to receive payments from customers. Quadrapay has excelled the complete process and helps merchants adeptly to process Echeck payments with high risk merchant accounts and payment gateway. You can log on to www.quadrapay.com and avail Echeck facility for your online business too. You can also send us an inquiry at [email protected] or call our 24/7 helpline on +1 63183 21773
Echeck and ACH Solutions for
Businesses of all Shape
*72 Hours payment is available to merchants processing over a specific volume. Terms and Conditions applicable.
Quadrapay.com takes pride is being associated with highly reliable Echeck processors based in USA. Our partners utilize highly secure gateway for echeck and ACH transactions. Every transaction is validated for and every detail is checked thoroughly. Checking small details like the Account Number, Routing Number, Funds Availability, Verbal confirmation etc. ensures that the transaction is clean and secure. Merchants with good history can also be approved for auto approve mode where no voice verification is done. Businesses of all size can apply for Echeck merchant account or electronic check payment gateway. The skilled Quadrapay team is all set with best resources and wide network with acquirers, processors and gateway providers across the globe. You need not worry about the processing, we can explain what is an echeck and how it works? We provide echeck (check 21) and ACH processing for low and mid risk businesses along with custom tailored solutions for high risk merchants as well.
Getting an echeck payment gateway for your business is not very difficult. It takes only a few days to activate the account. Merchants from various industries can apply for echeck and ACH payment gateway. Though it’s easier for low risk and high risk merchants to get an echeck processing merchant account as compared with high risk merchants, yet proper documentation is needed. There are a few requirements that must be met to start accepting echeck transactions on merchant’s website.
Merchants from High Risk Industries using echeck and ACH can easily reduce the return and chargeback ratio. With Echeck the dispute period is a lot lesser than credit/debit transactions. In 8 states across the USA, the dispute period is 60 days. In rest of the states the dispute period is only 30 days. Many organizations that were using Credit Card Merchant Account services are now using echeck because of short dispute period. The reason, we emphasize on using Echeck payments is that it helps in stabilizing and maintaining a high risk merchant account for a longer time.
It is not mandatory for merchants to have a USA company. Non USA merchants can also use USA echeck processing solution. There is an underwriting process that roughly takes 5 working days with complete genuine documentation. Non USA merchants can get Echeck Payment Gateway at ZERO SETUP CHARGES. Merchants from industries like PC Tech Support, Non-Controlled Pharmacy, Herbal, Nutraceuticals, Skin Care and Weight loss can use it as a better alternative than card processing options.Quadrpay.com has the most comprehensive solutions and helps you get Echeck payment gateway in India and other non USA nations.
What is Check21?
October 28, 2004, was the day when the ‘Check21’ law came into force. This Act is also known as 21st century act (or Check 21 Act). This Federal law was created to improve the Check processing capabilities of banks. In the traditional way of check processing, physical checks were transported from one bank to another. This process was very time consuming and also was expensive to for financial Institutions. The check 21 act allows the receiver of a physical check to create a digital copy which is also known as a ‘Substitute Check’. This digital copy can be easily forwarded from one financial institution to another using electronic mode of document transfer. This federal law has helped banks to process checks in a fast and more cost-effective manner. A properly created substitute check has the same value as a regular physical check.
Why is Check21 considered as a faster alternative to traditional paper checks?
Since the substitute check can be forwarded from one bank to another by the means of electronic medium, the processing of these checks can be way faster than the traditional checks.
The introduction of ‘check 21 act’ has certainly helped banks process a higher number of checks by implementing less physical resources. Banks also save money that used to be spent in the transportation of traditional paper checks.
To create a substitute check the bank captures the picture of the physical check. This picture includes the front and back side of the physical check. This substitute check must include all the vital pieces of information that are present on a regular check. Some of the vital information are.
How Secure is Check21?
The US government approved this act after rigorous analysis and understanding of all the factors involved in a substitute check processing. This mode of payment shall be considered secure as it has been approved by the government after spending multiple days and months of process understanding and implementation.
Even after implementation of check 21 the account holders can still utilize the traditional paper checks if they wish. The payer must maintain sufficient balance in the account so that the electronic check or check 21 transaction clears without any NSF errors.
As per the guidelines of the government and relevant agencies, the substitute check should be a little bit larger than the regular check in terms of size. Both sides of the physical check should appear on the substitute check. The substitute check should show the front and the back of the physical check properly.
The substitute check must have this term mentioned on the page that shows the front of the physical check
“This is a legal copy of your check. You can use it the same way you would use the original check.”
Proper care should be taken in ensuring that the substitute check clearly shows the front and the back of the paper check. Every piece of information should be clearly visible.
Check 21 has the same value as a regular check. It can also be considered as a proof of payment. Most of the government agencies and merchants accept payments by the echeck mode.
Consumers are highly protected while using check 21. In case if it appears that the substitute check is not valid and the consumer has experienced financial loss then they can file a claim on the bank. Consumers will have to provide additional information that shall be verified by the financial institution. Claim request should be made in less than 40 days from the time of receiving the substitute check. If the claim is found to be valid then the bank resolves the dispute within 45 days by issuing a refund.
A layman’s Guide to ACH Return Reason Codes
This information set should never be considered accurate. Merchants must contact the acquiring bank or ACH service provider for precise information.
| Return Code | Reason | Explanation |
| R01 | Insufficient Funds | This reason code means that the payers account does not have enough funds to clear the ACH Transactions. |
| R02 | Account Not Active and Closed | The Account was active in the past but has been closed by the account holder or the RDFI(Receiving depository financial institution) |
| R03 | Account Not Available/ System Not Able to Trace the Account | Most of the ACH processors check the account number by using digital tools. In This scenario the account number may be correct as per the format and parameter but may not be active or may not be relating to the payers information. Merchants should go back to the customer and ask for the account number again. Merchants can also ask the customer to check if the account number is same as it appears on the paper check. |
| R04 | Invalid Account Number as Per Structure or Number of Digits. | The Primary information that is needed for any echeck or ACH transaction is the account number. In this case the account number does not pass the account number validation or check. Merchants should ask the customer to clearly look at the account number and try again by putting another order. |
| R05 | A CCD (cash concentration and disbursement for corporate credits and debits) was initiated to the Payers account and was not approved or Authorized by the payer. | The ACH transaction needs to be approved by the payer. In this case merchants may contact the merchant and try to understand why the transaction was not authorized. |
| R06 | Originating Depository Financial Institution or ODFI Requested a Return of the transaction from RDFI or Receiving depository financial institution. | Sometimes the merchant may request the third party ach processor to decline a transaction. Sometimes the transaction may be a result of an error. R06 results in transaction being canceled. |
| R07 | Authorization revoked or canceled by the payer or the customer. | In case if the customer is not satisfied with the product or service then the customer may give a written instruction to the customers bank . This instruction is under the penalty of perjury. Customer may also revoke the authorisation if the product or service was not delivered. This is similar to a chargeback in a regular credit or debit card transaction. |
| R08 | Stop Payment. Payer has informed the bank not to process that specific transaction. | Payer or the customer does not want to continue with the transaction. This is similar to chargeback in credit card transactions. |
| R09 | Uncollected Funds | The account has sufficient funds but the usable balance is less that that is needed to clear the ach transaction. Sometimes few service providers request for a hold of an amount. If this is the case with the customers account then the usable balance may get lower than the transaction value in dollar. Customers can try to add additional funds to the bank account and place the order with the merchant again. |
| R10 | Customer disapproves and claims the transaction to be unauthorized. Only for Personal account | Customer may inform the RDFI to stop the transaction in case if the customer did not authorize the same, The order value is more than what customer authorized for, the merchant did not receive any documented authorisation from the customer. The customer has to put a written request for R10 under penalty of perjury. |
| R11 | Check Truncation Entry Return(used when no other applicable codes are available for return) | Transaction returned by the RDFI. The RDFI can return/decline the transactions because of multiple reasons including the Ticket size, Date of transaction, Item being sold etc. Merchants should contact the customer and understand the reason for the transaction decline. This code is used when no other procise code is available for return. |
| R12 | Account Sold to Another financial institution | The customer’s account is no longer managed or maintained by the original financial institution since the account has been sold to other bank or financial institution. Merchant may contact the customer and request to process order by using other account that may be live and active with sufficient funds. Merchant must take authorisation from the customer and it should be documented. |
| R13 | The RDFI is unable to accept ACH Transaction. The Bank is not connected the the national or regional ACH network | The Routing number belongs to a RDFI that does not participate or facilities ACH transactions. The Financial institutions need to join the ACH network and same may not be yet connected to ACH network. Merchant may ask the customer to use a different bank account that may support ACH. Merchant may decline any future transaction from that account. Merchant may stop future subscription transactions to the RDFI that is not accepting ACH transactions. |
| R14 | Payee deceased or is not in a position to continue with transactions. | The payer is possibly deceased or is not in a position to make payments for the final beneficiaries. This can be easily understood by an example. A father who was paying school fees for kids. In case if the father is deceased then the R14 may apply. In case if the parents go through legal separation and as per law the initial payer is not liable for the payments then also the code may generate. |
| R15 | The actual beneficiary is deceased. The representative payee is alive. | The individual or entity that is the final beneficiary is deceased. The merchant should not send any more transactions to the account as all will return the same code. |
| R16 | Account is Frozen | Account is frozen because of initiative taken by the RDFI or Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Merchants can contact the customer to request process a new order by using another account. Chances are that the customer may not be able to use any other account if the account was frozen as per the instruction of OFAC, |
| R17 | File Record Edit Criteria (Specify) | Every ach transaction involves many values to be placed in the transaction file. Some fields may not be processed by the RDFI. The fields should be identified and edited in the addenda. |
| R18 | Improper effective entry | The entry is processed before the first available effective date. |
| R19 | Amount Field Error | In every ACH transaction multiple vital information is needed. R19 means that the value in the amount field is not valid. Or the format of amount is not valid. |
| R20 | Non Transaction Account | The Account is not permitted for transaction |
| R21 | Invalid Company Information ID | The company ID number is not valid. |
| R22 | Invalid individual ID number | The Payer informs the RDFI that the number of the originator is not valid. |
| R23 | Credit entry refused by receiver | Receiver refused the credit. This may be incase where the payer did not transfer exact amount as requested by the merchant. |
| R24 | Duplicate entry | Applies in case if the RDFI receives a duplicate transaction where all values match to a previous transaction. The ODFI may have initiated a refund. Coordination with ODFI can help in understanding if the refund was initiated or not. |
| R25 | Addenda error | Addenda record indicator is not accurate. The value may be wrong or the sequence may be incorrect. |
| R26 | Mandatory field error | Mandatory Feild does not have a value or the value is not correct. This may also appear if the api integration on the merchants website is not done correctly. There may be a possibility that a mandatory field info is not getting posted on the gateway by the form. |
| R27 | Trace number error | The Trace number is not valid or is not present on the addenda record. |
| R28 | Routing number check digit error | The check digit generated for the routing number is incorrect. |
| R29 | Corporate Customer advises not authorized | The account at RDFI belongs to a corporate customer. The corporate customer declined the transaction by claiming it to be unauthorized. |
| R30 | RDFI not participant in check truncation program | The RDFI or the Financial institution where the payer has an account does not participate in the Check Truncation Program. Merchants should ask the customer to try with a different account detail. |
| R31 | Permissible return entry | The CCD or CTX entry is returned by the RDFI to the ODFI if ODFI accepts that. |
| R32 | RDFI non-settlement | RDFI or the payer’s financial institution is unable to settle the entry or transaction. |
| R33 | Return of XCK entry | RDFI based on its analysis returns the KCK entry. |
| R34 | Limited participation RDFI | The RDFI or the customers bank has been limited or is not able to complete the entry because of Government actions or guidelines. |
| R35 | Return of improper debit entry | For CIE entry Debit entry is not permitted. |
| R36 | Return of improper credit entry | The ACH transaction entry is not permitted for Accounts Receivable Entry, Back Office Conversion, Point-of-Purchase Entry, Re-presented Check Entry, Telephone-Initiated Entry, Destroyed Check Entry. |
| R37 | Source document presented for payment | This reason code means that the source document for Accounts Receivable Entry, Back office conversion, or Point of Purchase entry has been made available and presented for payment. |
| R38 | Stop payment on source document | Used by RDFI . The Payment and the the entry will not be completed. |
The expert team of Quadrapay has comprehensively evaluated the best in class service providers. We have figured out processors with the most competitive pricing. We can help you with the best Echeck solution specifically for your business model. We have resolved to help the high risk merchants with our specifically tailored support solutions. Any merchant can easily enroll with us by filling the short and easy application form available online on our website.
The team of Quadrapay.com excels in helping you find best processors, service providers and Echeck or ACH payment processing solutions for your merchant account. We provide services globally in USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Europe and Asia. If you are facing any trouble in getting the account, we are ready to help you. You can sign up the application form at www.quadrapay.com or send us a query on [email protected]. You can also call us on our 24*7 helpline +1 6318321773.
