ACH Returns

ACH Returns are similar to check returns or credit card chargebacks. When you originate an ACH payment, either the receiving bank or the receiving account holder can return the payment for various reasons. When this happens, you will receive a debit or credit transaction to offset the original ACH transaction you sent.

Some common scenarios are:

• The transaction was sent using an incorrect routing or account number.
• A transaction was sent to debit an account that has insufficient funds.
• The receiving account has ACH Blocks.

ACH payment rejections that happen while in Sent status will cause the original ACH transfer to be marked as Failed. Once an ACH transfer reaches the Success status, this means the ACH has left the originating bank, however, it can still be returned by the receiving bank. If this happens, a corresponding ACH Return transaction will be generated.

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Both Outbound ACH credit, and Outbound ACH debit (pull payments) may result in an ACH Return. An ACH Return may either be a credit, or a debit against the originating account.

ACH Returns typically will be received 2 business days from the settlement date of an ACH transaction and 60 days from the settlement date to return an unauthorized consumer transaction.

An ACH Return transaction has the following possible statuses:

• success - Returns are marked as success when they enter the Victor system as ACH Return transactions. At ths point funds have already been credited/debited from the account depending on the direction of the ACH Return

ACH Returns are created each business day at approximately 8:30am ET within the Victor platform.

ACH Return Preview (coming soon)

It is possible to receive an advance notice of an impending ACH Return by consuming this webhook ACH Return Preview. This preview is not received for all ACH returns, but Victor make this information available to our clients so they may better adminster their ACH program through earlier insight into their returned ACH transactions.

Note

• ACH Return Previews do not indicate funds have been moved, only that they will move. Fund movement will be confirmed as part of an ACH Return transaction
• ACH Return Previews do not create a transaction entry within Victor. They are only sent as a webhook

NOCs

In some cases, the receiving bank will send you a Notification of Change (NOC) instead of returning the transaction. This notification lets you know that even though the receiving bank was able to post the payment successfully, certain receiver details are incorrect or have recently changed. The notification includes a change code that lets you know which details to correct before sending any future payments. Common scenarios are:

• The account number or routing number has an incorrect digit (In these cases, the receiving bank is able to determine the correct account and post the payment).
• A checking account Transaction Code (22) was used instead of a savings account code (32), or viceversa.

We recommend that you consume both the ACH NOC and the ACH Return Transaction Webhooks so you can be informed of these events. You can see a comprehensive list of Return and NOC reasons here: NOC-and-Return-ACH-Codes.