eCheck Settlement

Because eCheck payments are made from a customer's bank account, the settlement process is different from the credit card transaction settlement process. For eCheck transactions, settlement occurs when the payment gateway initiates an ACH transaction to request the collection of funds for a purchase from the customer's bank account. Funding occurs when funds collected for eCheck transactions are deposted to the merchant's bank account. Due to processing through the ACH Network and the subsequent payment gateway holding period, the deposit of eCheck proceeds may vary by merchant. Settlement for eCheck transactions occurs each business day, excluding bank holidays. eCheck transactions submitted to

Visa Acceptance Solutions

before your daily Transaction Cut-Off Time are sent to the bank the following business day. The settlement time for each batch of transactions marks the beginning of the

Visa Acceptance Solutions

funds holding period. Transfer of eCheck proceeds to your bank account occurs on the business day after the transactions are considered collected by the system.

The timeframe for settlement, returns, and funding can vary depending on several variables such as the day of the week the transaction is submitted, the number of holding days established for your eCheck account, whether the transaction is returned for any reason, or if processing occurs over a weekend. If a merchant runs an eCheck transaction as Auth only, this will cause a funding delay. eCheck transactions will only begin their funding once a transaction has been captured and settled.

A typical eCheck processing cycle with a three-day holding period:

Banking Day 1: The merchant receives an eCheck transaction. At the Transaction Cut-Off Time, the transaction is picked up by the payment gateway.
Day 2: The payment gateway submits the previous day's batch to the ACH Network. This is the first day of the required funds holding period. The number of holding days varies per merchant, but for this example, we'll use 3 days.
Day 3: The ACH Network collects funds for the transaction from the customer's bank and relays them to
Visa Acceptance Solutions
. This is the second day of the required funds holding period. One of the purposes of the holding period is to wait for potential returns for transactions included in the batch. Returns can come back on this day.
Day 4: Third day of the required funds holding period. Returns can come back on this day.
Day 5: The payment gateway transfers available eCheck proceeds to the merchant's bank account. Returns can come back on this day.
Day 6: The eCheck proceeds are available in the merchant's bank account. Returns can come back on this day.

As processing only occurs on banking days, the timeframe can be extended depending on what day of the week processing and holding days occur. For example, if Banking Day 1 in the example above is a Friday, Banking Day 2 would not occur until Monday, 2 days later, prolonging the timeframe by 2 days.