Authorize.Net, Forte and BlueSnap eCheck

eCheck (ACH/EFT) Settings

In your Chargify site settings, enable ACH as a payment option:

Enable ACH in your settings for your site

Please be aware that enabling eCheck (ACH/EFT) will also enable the ACH Authorization Agreement email. This email is triggered when bank account information is entered via a Self-Service Page.

Allowing eCheck (ACH/EFT) Payments

A subscriber must be marked as “Verified for ACH/eCheck Payments” before they can begin paying by ACH. Change their customer entry to reflect this.

  • Find your customer in Chargify
  • Enable ACH for your customer.

Note the following two screen images below:

  • The first one features how to edit the customer to manually verify ACH usage
  • The second image shows you how to verify ACH usage from the main subscription view.
  • They both work just fine; it’s really just your preference!
Enable an individual subscription to use ACH as a payment method
Enable the customer entry to allow ACH usage
eCheck (ACH/EFT) guidelines place the responsibility on you, the merchant, to reduce fraudulent or incorrect use of bank account info. It’s your duty to know your customer, and to gain enough trust in them to let them enter bank account info.

Entering eCheck (ACH/EFT) Information

Please note that the Billing Portal does not yet support eCheck (ACH/EFT), regardless of how customers were signed up in Chargify.

You may have noticed that it’s not possible to add eCheck (ACH/EFT) information via a Public Signup Page. This lack of functionality is on purpose to protect you as the merchant. As mentioned above, each subscriber must be manually verified in Chargify before they can enter bank account information.

So how do you get bank account information into your Chargify account?

Merchants use either of the basic paths below to get ACH information into subscriptions:

Public Signup Pages

  1. A subscriber signs up via a Public Signup Page
  2. THEN gets approved by you for eCheck (ACH/EFT)
  3. THEN enters their bank account info

Chargify.js + Chargify API

  1. A subscriber signs up via your own form
  2. The signup information contains bank account information
  3. This process bypasses the step required to verify the customer for ACH
  4. Their bank account payment method is available for immediate use.

This process is easier for you and for your customers, but it assumes you have a closer relationship with your customers. We presume that you trust them to enter their bank account info.

Please visit the Chargify.js documentation for more information.

Manually in the Admin UI

If you have your subscriber’s bank account information, you may add it manually by selecting “Add New Bank Account”

Add a new bank account to a customer entry

You’ll then enter all of the data required for the customer’s future ACH payments. The following fields are required:

  • First name
  • Last name
  • Bank name
  • Routing number
  • Account number
Enter complete bank account information for payment

Collecting eCheck (ACH/EFT) Information via Self-Service Page

Send the Update Payment Profile form to your customer:

Email your customer directly with a link to a self-service page to update the payment method

Your customer receives the email/form, clicks “Change Payment Method” to switch the form to a bank account, and enters their bank account info here:

Self-service page: customers may enter bank account information

From that point forward, your customer will pay you via eCheck (ACH/EFT). Remember that if there is any change to the amount or the payment schedule, you will need to communicate with your customer to obtain their agreement to the new terms. This is an ACH requirement.

Authorize.Net

Testing ACH Payments

Chargify recommends during the testing phase to use Authorize.Net’s suggested eCheck/ACH routing numbers, accounts & verification process. Authorize.Net’s eCheck/ACH documentation contains accurate information on test data for Chargify merchants to use.

Forte (Beta)

eCheck Payments with CAD currency

Canadian routing number must be entered in the EFT format:

  • 0YYYXXXXX (a leading zero then YYY is the financial institution number and XXXXX is the transit number)

Testing ACH Payments

Chargify recommends during the testing phase to use Forte’s suggested eCheck/ACH routing numbers, accounts & verification process. Forte’s API documentation contains an example bank account you can use.

BlueSnap

Testing ACH Payments

While your site is in test mode connected to a BlueSnap sandbox, you may use the test bank account and routing numbers listed in BlueSnap’s eCheck/ACH documentation.