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OverviewUpgrade your integration
Online payments
OverviewFind your use caseManaged Payments
Payment methods
Payment interfaces
Payment scenarios
In-person payments
Beyond payments

Accept an ACH Direct Debit payment

Build a custom payment form or use Stripe Checkout to accept payments with ACH Direct Debit.

Use the Payment Element to embed a custom Stripe payment form in your website or application and offer payment methods to customers. For advanced configurations and customizations, refer to the Accept a Payment integration guide.

Before you use ACH direct debit in your Payment Element integration, learn about the following ACH direct debit-specific considerations:

Mandate collection

When accepting ACH payments, you need to understand mandates.

Unless you use a direct API integration, Stripe handles mandate collection and storage for your business to make sure that regulatory requirements are met. When a customer accepts the mandate during the payment process, Stripe automatically stores this information and it becomes available for you to access from your Dashboard.

Set up Stripe
Server-side

To get started, create a Stripe account.

Use our official libraries for access to the Stripe API from your application:

Command Line
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# Available as a gem
sudo gem install stripe
Gemfile
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# If you use bundler, you can add this line to your Gemfile
gem 'stripe'

Collect payment details
Client-side

Use the Payment Element to collect payment details on the client. The Payment Element is a prebuilt UI component that simplifies collecting payment details for various payment methods.

The Payment Element contains an iframe that securely sends payment information to Stripe over an HTTPS connection. Avoid placing the Payment Element within another iframe because some payment methods require redirecting to another page for payment confirmation.

The checkout page address must start with https:// rather than http:// for your integration to work. You can test your integration without using HTTPS, but remember to enable it when you’re ready to accept live payments.

Set up Stripe.js

The Payment Element is automatically available as a feature of Stripe.js. Include the Stripe.js script on your checkout page by adding it to the head of your HTML file. Always load Stripe.js directly from js.stripe.com to remain PCI compliant. Don’t include the script in a bundle or host a copy of it yourself.

checkout.html
<head>
  <title>Checkout</title>
  <script src="https://js.stripe.com/basil/stripe.js"></script>
</head>

Create an instance of Stripe with the following JavaScript on your checkout page:

checkout.js
// Set your publishable key: remember to change this to your live publishable key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys
const stripe = Stripe(
'pk_test_TYooMQauvdEDq54NiTphI7jx'
);

Add the Payment Element to your checkout page

To add the Payment Element to your checkout page, create an empty DOM node (container) with a unique ID in your payment form:

checkout.html
<form id="payment-form">
  <div id="payment-element">
    <!-- Elements will create form elements here -->
  </div>
  <button id="submit">Submit</button>
  <div id="error-message">
    <!-- Display error message to your customers here -->
  </div>
</form>

You can manage payment methods from the Dashboard or manually list the payment methods you want to be available when you create the Payment Element.

checkout.js
const options = {
  mode: 'payment',
  amount: 1099,
  currency: 'usd',
  // Fully customizable with appearance API.
  appearance: {/*...*/},
};

// Set up Stripe.js and Elements to use in checkout form
const elements = stripe.elements(options);

// Create and mount the Payment Element
const paymentElementOptions = { layout: 'accordion'};
const paymentElement = elements.create('payment', paymentElementOptions);
paymentElement.mount('#payment-element');

You can customize the Payment Element to match the design of your site by passing the appearance object into options when creating the Elements provider.

Collect addresses

By default, the Payment Element only collects the necessary billing address details. To collect a customer’s full billing address (to calculate the tax for digital goods and services, for example) or shipping address, use the Address Element.

Verify bank accounts

Bank account verification uses automatic verification to collect payment information through Financial Connections by default. No changes are required to use it. You can change your verification_method to instant to make all users verify their bank accounts with Financial Connections. See the Financial Connections docs to learn how to configure Financial Connections and access additional account data to optimize your ACH integration. For example, you can use Financial Connections to check an account’s balance before initiating the ACH payment.

By default, collecting bank account payment information uses Financial Connections to instantly verify your customer’s account. If instant verification isn’t possible, it falls back to manual account number entry and microdeposit verification.

Note

To expand access to additional data after a customer authenticates their account, the customer needs to re-link their account with expanded permissions. This authentication occurs one time per customer, and the permission it grants is reusable.

Microdeposit verification
Not all customers can verify their bank account instantly. This section only applies if your customer has elected to opt out of the instant verification flow in the previous step. In these cases, Stripe sends 1-2 microdeposits to a customer’s bank account for verification instead. These deposits take 1-2 business days to appear on the customer’s online statement.

There are two types of microdeposits:

  • Descriptor code (default): Stripe sends a 0.01 USD microdeposit to the customer’s bank account with a unique 6-digit descriptor_code that starts with SM. Your customer uses this code to verify their bank account.
  • Amount: Stripe sends two, non-unique microdeposits to the customer’s bank account, with a statement descriptor that reads ACCTVERIFY. Your customer uses the deposit amounts to verify their bank account.

Microdeposit verification failure
When a bank account is pending verification with microdeposits, verification can fail in several ways:

  • The microdeposits fail to arrive in the customer’s bank account (this usually indicates a closed or unavailable bank account or incorrect bank account number).
  • The customer exceeds the limit of verification attempts for the account. Exceeding this limit means the bank account can no longer be verified or reused.
  • The customer didn’t complete verification within 10 days.

Create a PaymentIntent
Server-side

Run custom business logic immediately before payment confirmation

Navigate to step 5 in the finalize payments guide to run your custom business logic immediately before payment confirmation. Otherwise, follow the steps below for a simpler integration, which uses stripe.confirmPayment on the client to both confirm the payment and handle any next actions.

When the customer submits your payment form, use a PaymentIntent to facilitate the confirmation and payment process. Create a PaymentIntent on your server with an amount and currency. To prevent malicious customers from choosing their own prices, always decide how much to charge on the server-side (a trusted environment) and not the client.

Included on a PaymentIntent is a client secret. Return this value to your client for Stripe.js to use to securely complete the payment process.

main.rb
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require 'stripe'
Stripe.api_key = 
'sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2'


post '/create-intent' do
  intent = Stripe::PaymentIntent.create({
    # To allow saving and retrieving payment methods, provide the Customer ID.
    customer: customer.id,
    amount:  1099,
    currency: 'usd',
  })
  {client_secret: intent.client_secret}.to_json
end

Submit the payment to Stripe
Client-side

Use stripe.confirmPayment to complete the payment using details from the Payment Element.

Provide a return_url to this function to indicate where Stripe redirects the user after they complete the payment. Your user might be initially redirected to an intermediate site, such as a bank authorization page, before being redirected to the return_url. Card payments immediately redirect to the return_url when a payment is successful.

If you don’t want to redirect for card payments after payment completion, you can set redirect to if_required. This only redirects customers that check out with redirect-based payment methods.

checkout.js
const form = document.getElementById('payment-form');
const submitBtn = document.getElementById('submit');

const handleError = (error) => {
  const messageContainer = document.querySelector('#error-message');
  messageContainer.textContent = error.message;
  submitBtn.disabled = false;
}

form.addEventListener('submit', async (event) => {
  // We don't want to let default form submission happen here,
  // which would refresh the page.
  event.preventDefault();

  // Prevent multiple form submissions
  if (submitBtn.disabled) {
    return;
  }

  // Disable form submission while loading
  submitBtn.disabled = true;

  // Trigger form validation and wallet collection
  const {error: submitError} = await elements.submit();
  if (submitError) {
    handleError(submitError);
    return;
  }

  // Create the PaymentIntent and obtain clientSecret
  const res = await fetch("/create-intent", {
    method: "POST",
  });

  const {client_secret: clientSecret} = await res.json();

  // Confirm the PaymentIntent using the details collected by the Payment Element
  const {error} = await stripe.confirmPayment({
    elements,
    clientSecret,
    confirmParams: {
      return_url: 'https://example.com/order/123/complete',
    },
  });

  if (error) {
    // This point is only reached if there's an immediate error when
    // confirming the payment. Show the error to your customer (for example, payment details incomplete)
    handleError(error);
  } else {
    // Your customer is redirected to your `return_url`. For some payment
    // methods like iDEAL, your customer is redirected to an intermediate
    // site first to authorize the payment, then redirected to the `return_url`.
  }
});

Test your integration

Learn how to test scenarios with instant verifications using Financial Connections.

Send transaction emails in a sandbox

After you collect the bank account details and accept a mandate, send the mandate confirmation and microdeposit verification emails in a sandbox.

If your domain is {domain} and your username is {username}, use the the following email format to send test transaction emails: {username}+test_email@{domain}.

For example, if your domain is example.com and your username is info, use the format info+test_email@example.com for testing ACH Direct Debit payments. This format ensures that emails route correctly. If you don’t include the +test_email suffix, we won’t send the email.

Common mistake

You need to activate your Stripe account before you can trigger these emails while testing.

Test account numbers

Stripe provides several test account numbers and corresponding tokens you can use to make sure your integration for manually-entered bank accounts is ready for production.

Account numberTokenRouting numberBehavior
000123456789pm_usBankAccount_success110000000The payment succeeds.
000111111113pm_usBankAccount_accountClosed110000000The payment fails because the account is closed.
000000004954pm_usBankAccount_riskLevelHighest110000000The payment is blocked by Radar due to a high risk of fraud.
000111111116pm_usBankAccount_noAccount110000000The payment fails because no account is found.
000222222227pm_usBankAccount_insufficientFunds110000000The payment fails due to insufficient funds.
000333333335pm_usBankAccount_debitNotAuthorized110000000The payment fails because debits aren’t authorized.
000444444440pm_usBankAccount_invalidCurrency110000000The payment fails due to invalid currency.
000666666661pm_usBankAccount_failMicrodeposits110000000The payment fails to send microdeposits.
000555555559pm_usBankAccount_dispute110000000The payment triggers a dispute.
000000000009pm_usBankAccount_processing110000000The payment stays in processing indefinitely. Useful for testing PaymentIntent cancellation.
000777777771pm_usBankAccount_weeklyLimitExceeded110000000The payment fails due to payment amount causing the account to exceed its weekly payment volume limit.

Before test transactions can complete, you need to verify all test accounts that automatically succeed or fail the payment. To do so, use the test microdeposit amounts or descriptor codes below.

Test microdeposit amounts and descriptor codes

To mimic different scenarios, use these microdeposit amounts or 0.01 descriptor code values.

Microdeposit values0.01 descriptor code valuesScenario
32 and 45SM11AASimulates verifying the account.
10 and 11SM33CCSimulates exceeding the number of allowed verification attempts.
40 and 41SM44DDSimulates a microdeposit timeout.

Test settlement behavior

Test transactions settle instantly and are added to your available test balance. This behavior differs from livemode, where transactions can take multiple days to settle in your available balance.

Error codes

The following table details common error codes and recommended actions:

Error codeRecommended action
payment_intent_invalid_currencyEnter a supported currency.
missing_required_parameterCheck the error message for more information about the required parameter.
payment_intent_payment_attempt_failedThis code can appear in the last_payment_error.code field of a PaymentIntent. Check the error message for a detailed failure reason and suggestion on error handling.
payment_intent_authentication_failureThis code can appear in the last_payment_error.code field of a PaymentIntent. Check the error message for a detailed failure reason and suggestion on error handling. This error occurs when you manually trigger a failure when testing your integration.
payment_intent_redirect_confirmation_without_return_urlProvide a return_url when confirming a PaymentIntent.
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