In the world of store fronts the writing of personal checks has become something archaic. Online however, there is a growing need for this payment option as your customer base can’t exactly hand you cash. They may not have a debit or credit card that they can use but they may have a check. This allows you to serve more customers and not exclude those who can only pay by certain methods. There are many more reasons to accept e-checks.

E-checks are a very secure method of payment. Often customers are more comfortable with this than with giving out their credit card information. This is also more cost effective for you as a business owner. Merchant account fees can be around 2.5% plus a transaction fee that may be around .30. Over time what seems like small fees for credit card processing can really cost you.

In 2001 the National Automated Clearing House Association claimed that two hundred million e-checks were processed that year alone. Now that we have state of the art technology the check can be scanned right at the point of sale (if you are given a paper check) and scanned. The machine communicates with the bank in the same way it would to approve a debit or credit transaction. Oftentimes, the amount is immediately taken out of the account so the vendor is not waiting for their money while checks clear and the customer can see that the amount has come out of their account. This prevents the nightmare that used to come from having bad checks written to you. The great thing is that you can have this service in addition to your traditional merchant account.

When a check is written as mentioned in the above paragraph, it is processed, marked and handed back to the customer. This insures that your information remains private. No one holds onto your checking account information except for you. This is a relief to all of us as identity theft is on the rise.

For the merchant the benefits are many: increased security, electronic deposits (no more making out deposit slips or entering all the information into your accounting software), verified funds (no more bad checks), no more collection accounts on checks, little or no cost to you, appeal to more customers and make them happy to come back to you time and again.

Accepting e-checks is just as vital as accepting credit cards. The more you can cater to the needs of your customers, the better your business.