A Faster Way to Recover NSF Checks!

Electronic Fund Transfers Paid On Time, Every Time What are Electronic Fund Transfers or EFTs? EFTs process pre-authorized debits or credits from one bank account to another within a 48 hour period to handle your company's payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable and/or NSF checks (RCK - returned checks). This electronic computer based process requires the use of special licensed software and a modem. All transactions are governed by the Federal Reserve Banking System. For those of us familiar with ATM cards at gas station pumps and grocery store check out lines, the concept of EFTs continues to earn the confidence of consumers and is therefore being applied in more and more settings. Over the past several years, EFTs have gained in popularity among businesses as well. Now any business, regardless of size, can use EFTs to conduct a variety of financial transactions. What are the benefits of EFTs? The benefits of EFTs are many. For receivables, benefits include prompt payment of your customers bills each month and early notice of insufficient funds. You get your cash on time, every time. While there is a small fee per transaction for this service, EFTs eliminate the need to print, process and send a monthly bill in many instances. This can save you as much as $2.25 to $3.00 or more per customer. Thus, you could lower your costs for labor to prepare statements as well as postage and the cost of paper used to print statements. EFTs also reduce late payments and the need to send out reminder notices. EFTs can actually increase your customer retention. This is most likely to occur in businesses that bill the same amount on a month to month basis for ongoing services such as pest control companies, newspapers, pool services, security companies and the like. Having the fee automatically deducted from your customers checking account increases the retention of those who might otherwise let the service lapse. You can save hundreds, even thousands, of dollars on your billing and administrative costs, dramatically improve your cash flow and eliminate many of your collection hassles by using the EFT services. While you are saving money, your customers benefit from EFTs as well. With ETT Consulting, customers will no longer have to worry about missing billing deadlines. Bills are paid even when your customers are away from home. No more writing checks, no more postage, no more service charges for checks and no more embarrassing second billing notices and late payments. EFT is free to your customers and your customers will appreciate this value added service. How does the EFT transfer process work? First you have your customers sign a form that authorizes you to deduct their payment on a certain date. Your customers provide you with a checking deposit slip to verify all account information. Then you create the initial database. According to the billing cycle, the amount of your customers bill is then automatically debited from their checking account and deposited into your account. In the case of payroll, your account is debited and your employees account is credited each pay period. Who inputs the information into the computer? ETT Consulting provides the software and training to you so you can download needed transaction information directly from your existing accounting systems using the EFT for Windows ASCII format. This means no re-keying of data which minimizes errors and expedites the process. Typically hundreds of transactions can be downloaded and sent to ETT Consulting in a matter of minutes. How much time is required to establish the initial EFT database? It only takes a few seconds per customer to input name, bank account number, routing transit number of their bank, the amount of the debit, and the due date. Its that simple! Once the database is established, the only component that changes each billing cycle is the due date and perhaps the monthly charge. How safe are EFTs? All EFTs are governed by the Federal Reserve Banking System. Only pre-authorized transactions are allowed to be processed. This is strictly enforced by the Federal Reserve. Customers must authorize all EFT debits from their checking account in writing. How will I know that the information sent to ETT Consulting has been received and processed? The ETT Consulting software prints several different reports for you. Both before and after the data has been sent, you can print a report that documents your transaction. ETT Consulting provides you with a status report the same day that verifies all of the transaction information. You will know within 24 to 48 hours if any of your customer transactions failed to process due to insufficient funds or incorrect data entries. Most banks take as long as two or more weeks to notify businesses of insufficient funds on checks being processed. Clearly ETT Consulting EFT services offers your business a better alternative to processing checks for financial transactions. How much will I pay for the EFT services from ETT Consulting? ETT Consulting bases its transaction fees entirely on volume the more EFT transactions, the lower your fee. One EFT transaction consists of one debit and one credit of the same dollar amount. The fees do NOT vary by the amount of the transaction. You pay the same amount for a $5 transaction as you do for a $500,000 transaction. In nearly all cases, this figure is less than the cost your business bears to process receivables, payables and/or payroll transactions by checks.

RCK (Check Representment) is the conversion of a non-sufficient funds (NSF) check to an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). Not only can you collect the face value of the check; you can also collect the NSF fee charges after the electronic check has been collected. Check Representment allows businesses the opportunity to recover NSF checks in 5 banking days. No more waiting 30 to 60 days to receive payment.

Check Representment is also proving to be an excellent sorting tool. Each represented item is tracked with the status (i.e. returned, account closed, etc.) and reported back to the originator within 2 to 4 banking days. These reports allow the originator to control their entire NSF collection operation. If the represented item was returned indicating account closed, stop payment, etc. then the originator could send it for collection as opposed to representing it again. The originator's collections would then become more streamlined, more cost effective, and ultimately more profitable.

ETT Consulting is not a collection agency or a bank. We provide you with our proprietary software (EFT for Windows©) to electronically reprocess NSF checks. All of ETT Consulting's transactions are governed by the Federal Reserve System and meet the American Bankers Association standards. It's fast, simple, safe, convenient and very cost effective.

Benefits of Check Representment

The benefits to Check Representment are many.

Requirements

To be eligible for collection as a represented check, a check must be:

The following are examples of checks that are ineligible for collection as represented check entries:

Questions and Answers

Q. Does the originating company have to obtain the consumer's authorization to transmit a represented check entry to the consumer' account?

A. No. The consumer's authorization is not required for represented check entries. However, the originating company is required to have provided notice to the check writer, prior to receiving the consumer's check, informing him/her of the represented check entry policy under which the consumer's check may be collected electronically if it is returned for insufficient or uncollected funds.

Q. How must notice of the represented check entry policy be provided?

A. The NACHA rules require that the originating company provide the Receiver with notice that clearly and conspicuously state the terms of the represented check entry policy in advance of receiving the check. The NACHA Operating Guidelines recommend that notice of the represented check entry policy that is provided at the point-of-sale be clearly displayed on a sign at the point-of-sale. Notice provided by a billing firm (such as a utility company or a credit card company that issues a bill for payment) should be clearly displayed on or with the monthly billing statement.

Q. Can originating companies add collection fees to the amount of a represented check entry?

A. No. Represented check entries must be originated for the face amount of the check only; no collection fees may be added to the amount of the item when it is transmitted as an ACH entry. Originating companies wishing to collect fees electronically must be aware that entries to collect fees are considered to be separate transactions from represented check entries and, as such, require the written authorization of the consumer and must comply with all requirements governing traditional PPD entries. You can initiate a transaction to collect a collection fee with written authorization from the consumer only after the face value of the represented check is collected.

Q. How many times can a represented check be transmitted?

A. If the item to which the represented check entry relates has been deposited and returned through the paper check collection process twice, a represented check entry may be transmitted only one time. If the item to which the represented check entry relates has been deposited and returned through the paper check collection process only once, a represented check entry may be transmitted up to two times. electronic funds transfer eft ach service provider check representment rck automated banking systems for small medium and large business EFT, Electronic funds transfer, software, ach service, automated banking system, businesses, ACH, payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, windows, 3.1, 3.11, windows 95, windows 98, windows NT

 

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