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Learn about pricing and settlement services for ACH Direct Debit on adyen.com.
ACH Direct Debit is a popular payment method used in the United States and Puerto Rico as an alternative to credit and debit cards. The payments are processed via the Automated Clearing House (ACH), which is an electronic network for processing financial transactions.
To accept ACH Direct Debit payments, you must have a registered business entity in the United States.
Both one-off and recurring payments are supported by ACH. Due to the risk of chargebacks, we don't recommend using ACH Direct Debit for one-off payments.
The ACH network is unable to provide real-time authorisations. This means there is a risk of transactions being reversed if, for example, the bank account has insufficient funds. Additionally, the shopper can initiate a chargeback up to 60 days from the initial date of the direct debit payment.
| Payment type | Payment flow | Countries | Currencies | Recurring | Refunds | Partial refunds |
Separate captures |
Partial captures |
Chargebacks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct debit | Direct | PR, US | USD |  |
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Account validation
When accepting ACH Direct Debit payments, Nacha requires you to verify the shopper's bank account. There are two ways to do this:
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Collect details yourself: you collect the shopper's bank account number, bank routing number, and account holder name, and pass these details in the payment request. We then try to validate the account through the gVERIFY solution from giact.
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Partner with Plaid: the shopper connects their account with Plaid. This results in a shopper-specific Plaid processor token that we use to validate the account through Plaid. The processor token can be reused for recurring payments.
The main differences are:
| gVERIFY | Plaid | |
|---|---|---|
| Shopper experience | Shopper needs to look up the account number and routing number. | Simple steps in the Plaid Link app. |
| Sensitive account details | You need to collect the account details. | You don't handle the account details. |
| Real-time balance check | It's possible to make a separate balance check call (not documented). | Single call. If the balance doesn't match the conditions in your payment request, the transaction is refused immediately. |
| Supported integrations | All integrations. | Specific integrations:
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How do you want to integrate?
Web
Use our pre-built UI solutions to add ACH Direct Debit to your website.
API only
Build your own UI for ACH Direct Debit in your website, iOS, or Android app.
Pay by Link
Add ACH Direct Debit to your payment methods, and use Pay by Link to accept payments.
ACH Direct Debit plus Plaid
Add ACH Direct Debit to your /payments integration, and use Plaid to verify the account.