Why You Need Instant Check Verification for Your Business

Have you ever given a great pitch, made the sale, and walked away smiling with a bad check in your hand? You take it to the bank, only to find yourself stuck with a fee instead of a payment. Every business has been there. That’s why instant check verification is a lifesaver for all of your customer transactions.

You need immediate check verification if you’re going to thrive, no matter the size or nature of your business.

Why? Because your ability to remain operational depends on your bottom line. You can’t meet that line if you continue to stack up unnecessary expenses. In this day and age, returned check fees are finally an unnecessary expense.

So, how can you capitalize on the wealth of new technologies that make this possible? Keep reading to find out!

Check Verification in Today’s World

Today, there are many easy and affordable electronic check verification methods. They generally work through banking apps that connect directly to the customer’s bank account, alerting the store if there are insufficient funds for their purchase. Retail and grocery stores can actually integrate this verification technology into their point-of-sale (POS) system, but most POS systems already have them.

Cashflow for service-based businesses is better served by companies that offer eChecking and automatic clearinghouse (ACH) solutions. An eCheck is an electronic funds transfer (EFT). An EFT uses the automated clearinghouse network to process payments. When you receive an eCheck, the money is electronically withdrawn from your customer’s account.

Once money is withdrawn from the account, it’s sent through the ACH to your bank. When the money arrives at your bank, it’s electronically transferred into your account.

eChecks are different from paper checks because your eCheck will already be verified to have the funds needed for the transaction. After the funds are verified, they are usually available to merchants within 24-48 hours.

Why is it Essential?

Check verification is one of the most secure financial transactions a business can make. Check fraud is an ongoing concern for business owners. Each year, 51% of business payments in the US are made by check.

When paper checks are used, businesses reported 71% experience actual or attempted bank fraud. This high percentage rate makes it essential that businesses have a way to counter any check fraud possibilities. Immediate check verification offers a verifiable audit trail that’s easy to use and set up.

How Can You Sign Up for eCheck Verification?

You can easily get an eCheck verification system by signing up with a check processing company. You’ll need to let them know four things:

• EIN Letter/SS-4/Tax ID
• Business bank statement
• Voided check or bank letter
• Driver’s license

Once you complete your application, the business can usually approve it in a matter of days. Some companies, like SeamlessChex, even offer instant account setups that take much less time.

How Electronic Check Verification Works

Electronic check verification used to be the future of business but in today’s marketplace, it’s considered mandatory. Most merchant providers process payments through the ACH network as debit or credit transactions. ACH transactions typically do not use any type of verification. Check processing companies like Seamless Chex use an automatic verification built-in, and the process isn’t much different.

As a freelancer or service-based business, you can enjoy the same security and accept checks online with confidence. Just make sure the payment processing company you’re using offers immediate check verification. That way, you’ll know almost instantly when a transaction won’t go through. Instant check verification also ensures that you don’t get shortchanged by a bad check.

Payment processing companies also make it easier to manage your cash flow. Many of them even allow you to send invoices and set up automatically recurring payments. There are many ways these companies can be very helpful to your business.

Four Ways Payment Processing Does More than Electronic Check Verification

Some of the biggest ways you’ll benefit from a payment processing company with immediate check verification include:

1. Invoicing and recurring payment features make sure you get paid on-time, every time. They also provide a way to manage every aspect of your financial transactions from a single dashboard.
2. Fees tend to be lower than credit card processing and funding time is faster compared to ACH transfers. That means you save time and money on every processed payment.
3. They make it extremely easy to make payments and get paid. This almost always generates more sales as customers and clients expect a simple transaction process.
4. They offer a variety of other features designed to keep your business on track, and many offer processing times as low as two days. Some even offer same or next-day funding.

As you can see, this is an option you can’t afford to ignore.

Instant Check Verification is Extremely Secure

The last thing any business owner wants is a data breach—that’s one good way to lose a lot of business. It’s also why so many people shy away from online payment processing companies. However, all companies use the same networks to process payments.

The only difference is in how an online company connects to your financial institution. These days, many companies accomplish this using your online banking login information. So long as their site is secure, so is your login information.

When it comes right down to it, the immediate eCheck verification process is more secure than any paper check system. That’s because businesses provide EFT services for customers through encrypted 128-bit SSL communication channels. It’s easy to misplace a check and leave someone’s routing numbers floating around for anyone to pick up. It’s not so easy to hack an encrypted channel.

An encrypted financial transaction system works by connecting two keys. One key is public and one key is private. These keys unscramble information that was purposely scrambled during the encryption process. If a hacker tries to access your electronic check verification system and doesn’t have the key, they receive completely indecipherable data.

That’s Why You Need Immediate Check Verification

You simply can’t afford to ignore all the new options for payment processing. Instant check verification is a lifeline for your business. It keeps you from paying a returned check fee after losing a sale. It also helps you quickly distinguish between a serious client and someone who may not be ready to grow with your company.

Not only that, there are many options offered by companies like ours. All of them are designed to keep your cash flowing smoothly. They also provide maximum oversight of your transactions. Add to that the extra levels of security, and you can plainly see: paper checks are a relic of a bygone era, and immediate check verification is the modern solution.

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