Everything ACH

Tomorrow – March 9, 2010 – marks the beginning of our 4th year of partnering with UMACHA (Upper Midwest ACH Association) to bring you the best darned beginner level ACH Education for Free.  And it’s FREE.  Did I mention that?  Oh, and it starts at 1:00 PM CT and should last about 90 minutes.

 It’s an entire series really.  Monthly, for 8 months we’ll cover topics ranging from a basic introduction to Returns and Unauthorized transactions to an entire session on ARC, POP and BOC.  Then to wrap up the year, we’ll tackle a couple of Check related sessions.

Each year, we have Banks, Credit Unions, Schools and Universities, Competitors, Merchants/Originators and Individuals – a great mix.

This month’s presentation is:  Introduction to ACH

Discover the basic principles of the ACH Network, the history, legal framework, participants and flow of ACH transactions.  Details on where the Originator fits into the “flow” of an ACH transaction and the route an entry takes before posting to the Receiver’s account will be discussed.

Now I know some of you are asking “What the catch?”  Here’s the deal – You have to register in advance. 

If you’re interested and I know you are, go to http://www.achdirect.com/news/events-teleseminars.asp.   

Click on the date/title of tomorrow’s presentation and you’ll be presented with the registration page. 

After you register, you’ll receive an e-mail with the log in and dial in details.

If you would like to register for multiple sessions, you will have to register separately for each one.  A bit of an annoyance I know, but what do you expect for free?  I mentioned it was FREE right?

If you would like a hard copy of the presentation, you can click on the link below the description and download a .pdf copy.

Should be a great time and I hope to hear you there.

Remember when you were a kid and your parents would say something about ‘in the good ‘ol days’? 

 In the good ‘ol days, candy bars only cost $0.15.  In the good ‘ol days, a movie cost $0.50 and popcorn was a dime.  In the good ‘ol days, a Stop Pay order was only good for one transaction.  OK, maybe that will be our ‘good ‘ol days’ line.

March 19, 2010 marks the date for another set of ACH Rules changes.  I’ve already addressed the upcoming changes to the Written Statement and now it’s time to address the upcoming changes to Stop Pay orders.

This is the order of things as we know it today;

A Stop Pay order is good for only 1 single transaction

A Stop Pay order is good until;

                The debit was stopped,

                6 months have passed without the debit being presented for payment, or

                The consumer requests removal of the Stop Pay order

This is the order of things to come – beginning March 19, 2010;

A Stop Pay order can be placed on multiple transactions

A Stop Pay order is good until;

                The debits or debits have been stopped

                The consumer requests removal of the Stop Pay order

Multiple transactions – A Receiver can now list multiple debits on the same form whereas in the good ‘ol days, we had to fill out a separate form for each debit we wanted stopped.  It is now the responsibility of the RDFI to determine what the Receiver wants. 

Does the Receiver want to only stop this month and next month’s payments and let future payments go through as usual?  Or do they want to stop all future payments?

Of course, if they want to stop all future payments, the RDFI should direct the Receiver to the Originator to revoke the authorization – in whatever manner is required by the authorization.  If the Receiver has already revoked the authorization, the RDFI has the opportunity to request a copy of the revocation provided by the Receiver to the Originator.  The RDFI has always had this opportunity, but now the Rules specify that the RDFI is permitted to make this request.

More than 6 months – Once upon a time, some Originator got a bright idea after a transaction was returned as R08 Payment Stopped; they decided to hold off on resubmitting the debit until the Stop Payment order expired.  180 days later, maybe 181 days later, they resubmitted their debit and it went through.  They were trying to bypass the Stop Pay order 6 month time-frame.  It worked, but it’s wrong.

To address this, the 6 month time-frame has been removed.  Problem solved.

That’s really about it for Stop Pay order changes. 

One of the really nice things – to me – is that these changes force communication.  OK, maybe they don’t force communication, they encourage communication…yah, that’s it, encourage.  Now I love me some communication.  I think we should all talk all the time.  The bottom line is that good communication can help avoid all sorts of problems and misunderstandings.

These changes open a path for the RDFI and the Receiver to communicate regarding the intent of the Stop Pay order.  They also open a path for the Originator and the Receiver to communicate regarding the intent of the Stop Pay order.  That is not a bad thing.

Someday, you’ll hear me say, in the good ‘ol days, after we signed an authorization, we never had to talk to the Originator again.  Maybe the good ‘ol days weren’t so good.