How can I create an ACH file in a Java application (although the language isn't important) and submit it to be processed? I need to know the format of the ACH file and then what to do with it afterwards. Looking at this question, I see links to external processors. Do I need to use a third party to submit the file?
Creating the file isn't hard (although I can't find details on the format), but then having a file on my hard drive doesn't do any good. If I have to use a third party, what are some good services?
Another third-party that offers ACH service is SecureNet LLC. However, check with your bank. Many banks that provide business services (as opposed to consumer services) have ACH Origination, which means that they will process the transactions for you. Direct service with your existing financial institution will mean faster credits/debits and (usually) lower fees.
You do need a third party to process the file as you cannot connect to the banks directly. Authorize.Net offers an eCheck service and has an API available that allows you to submit ACH payments.
Related
My company wants to start a subscription based website and I'm implementing it with a payment gateway.
The problem is, this payment gateway doesn't give me any tools to encrypt the client's credit card information before it reaches our server.
So my question is, how should I handle this very sensitive information?
I don't plan on storing it or anything, just send it straight from the server to the payment gateway for validation.
Are we even allowed to handle plain text credit card information?
I know this is a very open subject, I just want to get directed for somewhere I can read and understand more about this issue.
You’ll almost certainly need pci compliance, and with the setup you’ve described, you’ll need the broadest scoped assessment. Not something you want to approach light heartedly.
If you already have industry standard security in place, then it shouldn’t be a big leap to PCI compliance, but most don’t have that. In general the approach to take is to reduce your scope, you could do this with a third party offering like an iframe or redirect, companies like Stripe offer solutions to do that. In that case you may be able to get away with SAQ A, otherwise you probably need SAQ D. This also depends on your volume, if they’re higher you’ll need a report on compliance (roc), which can be expensive and are needed annually.
You can have a chat with your merchant bank, since they are the ones generally requiring the compliance. They can be very helpful, presuming your service isn’t live.
Check out the pci council website, loads of info on there to get you started.
I'm looking for some feedback from entrepreneurs or developers that have used either Chargify or Recurly to handle their recurring billing.
More specifically, I sell a hardware device that works in unison with a companion application and charge a subscription for the functionality of the companion application. I sell both b2b and b2c. Thus, I need a recurring billing platform that can handle a single unit purchase as well as a 10-20k wholesale purchase and be able to track quantities sold. I've noticed Chargify lacks the ability for me to track quantity. Further, we have highly targeted, customized landing pages on HubSpot and would need the two platforms to integrate nicely.
Has anybody had experience with either of these platforms? What do you like and dislike about the functionality and capabilities? Which do you recommend based off what I would need it to accomplish? Alternatively, is there a different platform that you would recommend?
Regarding "I've noticed Chargify lacks the ability for me to track quantity." - Chargify is able to handle this with what they call "components." Your use case is very common and definitely doable via Chargify.
Is there a way to automate NACHA batch file payments to banks from a generated NACHA file?
I want to get customers bank info into a system then take that info and generate payments to
my account with a batch file.
How can this be done with node.js??
Update
I've open sourced an ACH file generation library called nACH2
https://github.com/glenselle/nACH2
This has been a while, but for anyone interested, there is an NPM module called nacha that does what you want. It was made by Bitfloor, the Bitcoin exchange company who recently closed their doors after they were hacked. It's still on their ghostly Github account and I contacted the the man who wrote it. He said he had used it in production for several months without problems. But...he would advise that some work be put in to adding more tests, making the module more extensible and just testing it to be sure it is generating the correct files. I've taken a look at it, and I might attempt to re-write the NPM module for the company I'm working for and then open source it so others can benefit. In the meantime, you could take a look at that NPM module for generating ACH NACHA files.
Any of us that have worked with multiple data formats and are familiar with the NACHA (or ACH) file format know that it is awful. It is a fixed width file that is inconsistent from row to row and nearly impossible to work with. Banks in the United States are required to utilize this format with organizations like Federal Reserve, but technically savvy banks will not require that format from their customers.
You might ask your bank if they accept file formats other than NACHA formatted files. For example, our bank accepts NACHA, XML, EDI820, ISO20022, .CSV, fixed width, and delimited files that are much easier to work with. We also provide information back to systems regarding the status of those payments after they are initiated.
Regarding the automation piece, absolutely. Files can be automatically encrypted with PGP, transmitted via SFTP. Likewise, some banks will also deliver files to you via SFTP or have a server where you can pick the data up. There are many free open source applications that can help you accomplish this WinSCP and Cleopatra are two widely used applications that will keep the data secure and get it where it needs to go.
If your banker is not able to help you with these functions or you are looking for a technically savvy bank, please feel free to give our Treasury Management department a call at 913-563-5600 and ask them to schedule a technical call with the IT staff and we can help point your team in the right direction.
I have a general question about accepting credit card payements.
Here is my situation:
I have a website which gives the posibility to our clients to publish some adds on it.
The add is first received and checked internaly by an add editor. Then, we are asking the client for the payement and when the payement is received, the add is published.
My goal is to give the possibility to our clients to pay with their credit card.
For example, send them the invoice by email with the link (or button) to a webpage where they could introduce their CC number et all needed information. This page can be created on our website.
I have read some articles about the onLine payement and sow that there is 2 main possibilities:
Use a third party merchant
Use my own merchant account
Which one of those two solutions are better in your opinion, are ther advantages - disadvantages ?
Is there another solution except those two?
What about the solution to use my own merchant account? Complicated to implement ?
Thank you very much.
Unless you have a lot of resources available to comply with the PCI DSS standards ( https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/ ), use a third party. Much less hassle.
I'm working on a project where we collect payments from users using credit/debit/PayPal payments.
The service is taking payments from users on behalf of a 3rd party organisation.
Once we take the payment, minus fees, we want to transfer the amount to the organisations bank account.
For now, what we can do is pay the organisation using Online Banking BACS bank transfer.
But I would like to know if there is a way to do this automatically using an API.
If we need to somehow register the 3rd parties bank account details before making transfers, this is fine.
We just want to automate the whole process, since at the moment the transfer is a manual step.
Are there any gateways or APIs I can use for this? In the UK?
As this is still un-answered I'll throw my hat into the ring.
For the benefit of non-UK users, the UK has a central clearing system called Bacs, which is run by the major banks in the country. However, companies can also makes submissions directly to that clearing system, by using Bacs Software.
There are a number of companies that sell on-premise and online services/APIs that allow you to send money directly via Bacs (and collect Direct Debits).
DISCLAIMER: I currently work for a software company (Bottomline Technologies) which sells a Bacs API - I won't mention the product name and to see alternative companies you can simply Google for 'bacs software api'
Hope this helps
You are going in the wrong direction. You should talk to payment processors (which may or may not include your bank) about the business considerations, which probably are more important than the technological considerations. Generally you can expect something somewhat reasonable that you will (after fiddling with it enough) be able to convince to work. It doesn't matter whether this involves some sort of api library, soap calls, or other communication method.
If you honestly consider having the technological considerations more important than the business considerations, then just go with Paypal and don't write your own shopping cart stuff at all. This is easier to use and will do more of the heavy lifting for you, but which will also probably charge you more.
Once you create a real shopping cart and start handling payments yourself (i.e. taking in CC information and sending it to a payment processor), you start getting into a mess of legal and technical concerns involving PCI compliance and the like, which will apply regardless of your choice of payment processor*.
*This is US-specific, but I bet the UK has something similar.