Square and Plaid partner for ACH payments

For many ecommerce businesses, ACH payments debited directly from bank accounts provide a lower-cost, more accessible alternative to credit cards. And while cards expire and go missing, account and routing numbers used for ACH payments are more permanent, leaving less room for interruption and error. Despite the benefits for merchants, customer preference and convenience have helped cards solidify their position as the recent default in ecommerce payments. 

Plaid allows customers to quickly authorise their bank account to make a payment. To help businesses take advantage of the ACH opportunity, Plaid partnered with Square so merchants in the US can easily process ACH debits without needing to hold sensitive bank information. Now merchants can accept ACH payments through Square Invoices and developers can enable ACH payments through Square Web Payments SDK, without worrying about bank authentication or any managed payment complexities.

Through the partnership, Square uses a tokenized check system that uses Plaid to allow customers to securely connect their bank accounts for bank payments. This verification option allows customers to quickly enter their bank login credentials to connect an account to enable payments. For businesses that collect payments on high-value orders, the power of Square and Plaid means more certain collections. In addition, Square offers fee-free refunds on ACH payments they process to make ACH acceptance even easier. Amid the changing payments landscape, businesses that make the switch to account-based payments could reap big rewards from a customer base that is growing more accustomed to new ways of paying.