Merchants can mitigate point of sale check acceptance risk (in person and online) by utilizing ACH Check Verification Companies. Check verification companies offer options ranging from automated routing number checks, negative databases, and almost real-time inquiries into current checking account status. These inquiries require the customer to log-in or provide credentials to their online banking system.
Check verification tools allow businesses to significantly reduce payment acceptance risks by verifying that a customer has an active bank account with positive funds status in real-time.
ACH payments lack the authorization component present with credit cards, which can be authorized at the time of payment to ensure that the customer has the requisite funds on their cards. This reserves the funds for capture and settlement, and allows a business to know that they are being paid at the point of sale. The lack of an authorization means that the ACH Check Verification Companies system is necessary to mitigate payment acceptance risk.
Without an ACH Verification System, the process for new customers to obtain correct or valid checking account information will be arduous. Likewise, when that new customer’s payment fails because of bad checking account data there is financial loss and more potential for losing that new customer. This makes check verification tools even more important. A checking account verification system will help eliminate much of the “after the sale” work that arises when a payment fails, and can help save a sale.
The majority of the time payment rejects are accidents, and making customers go through the hassle of the sale process again will undoubtedly lead to a fraction of those sales being lost. By leveraging checking account verification tools businesses can reduce the chance of losing customers over simple data entry errors. Businesses that rely on future billing are especially vulnerable to bad check data, but utilizing the ACH Check Verification Companies can dramatically reduce bad check acceptance and the subsequent workflow problems.