ACH Bank Transfer Payments
If your unit already uses Square for on-line payments in your site, you now have a new option on the One-Line Payments page: ACH Bank Transfer.
Square only charges 1% of the payment amount - with a $1 minimum charge - for ACH bank transfers. For payments of $25 or more, this is less expensive than a credit card payment. For large payments of $100 or more, ACH transfers are much less expensive than credit card payments.
Square has partnered with a company called Plaid to provide this service. Plaid, in turn, has partnered with over 12,000 financial institutions to facilitate bank transfers - so it is quite likely your bank is participating.
As shown above, the One-Line Payments page has been modified so that you select the payment method on the first page. This allows it to calculate the estimated processing fee based on the selected payment type. So if your site is configured to allow payments through both Square and Paypal, it will compute the correct fee for credit card payments rather than defaulting to the higher payment amount.
The second page of the On-Line Payment process now only shows the payment option selected on the first page.
So, if you selected the first option, "Credit Card", you will only see the Square credit card form on the next page, as shown below.
If you selected the "PayPal" payment option, the second page will have a PayPal Buy Now button, which will take you to the PayPal site to complete the process.
If you select "ACH Bank Transfers" as your payment type, you will be prompted for the first and last name of the person whose bank account will be funding this payment.
Once you've entered the name of the bank account holder, press the Pay with Bank Account button to pop up a window controlled by Plaid.
Press Continue to see a page where you will select your bank.
Scroll down the list to find your bank, or use the search box to filter the list.
You will then be asked to log on to your account at that bank. Enter the user ID and password that you would normally use when you do your on-line banking.
From this point, the process may vary depending on your bank. You may be asked to have a verification code sent to your phone. You may then be asked to select the specific account (e.g., checking vs. saving) from which you wish to transfer the money.
Once this process is completed you will return to the last TroopWebHost page you saw. Be patient! After a few seconds this will return to the list of your on-line payments, with your latest payment at the top.
Please note: ACH payments will take three business days to complete. This payment will not be credited to your account in TroopWebHost until that time.
The Square configuration page has two new options:
- Enable ACH bank transfers on your site
- Set a minimum amount for ACH payments
The first option, Enable ACH Bank Transfers, has been checked (i.e., set to "Yes") on all sites. Remove this checkmark if you do NOT want your members to have this payment option.
The second option, Minimum Amount For ACH Payments, lets you set a minimum amount that a member can pay via ACH. Since the ACH payment fee has a minimum charge of one dollar, it can be a very high fee for small payments. This could be especially critical for units that absorb the payment processing fee. You wouldn't want to be stuck with a $1 fee on a $2 payment, would you?
