Accept an ACH Direct Debit payment

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

Checkout

Elements

Direct API

Mobile

Precaución

Stripe can automatically present the relevant payment methods to your customers by evaluating currency, payment method restrictions, and other parameters.

Follow the Accept a payment guide to build a Checkout integration that uses dynamic payment methods.
If you don’t want to use dynamic payment methods, follow the steps below to manually configure the payment methods in your Checkout integration.

Stripe users in the US can use Checkout in payment mode to accept ACH Direct Debit payments.

A Checkout Session represents the details of your customer’s intent to purchase. You create a Session when your customer wants to pay for something. After redirecting your customer to a Checkout Session, Stripe presents a payment form where your customer can complete their purchase. After your customer completes a purchase, they redirect back to your site.

With Checkout, you can create a Checkout Session with us_bank_account as a payment method type to track and handle the states of the payment until the payment completes.

Nota

ACH Direct Debit is a delayed notification payment method, which means that funds aren’t immediately available after payment. A payment typically takes 4 business days to arrive in your account.

Determine compatibility

To support ACH Direct Debit payments, make sure you express Prices for all line items in US dollars (currency code usd).

Create or retrieve a customer
Recommended
Server-side

Create a Customer object when your user creates an account with your business, or retrieve an existing Customer associated with this user. Associating the ID of the Customer object with your own internal representation of a customer enables you to retrieve and use the stored payment method details later. Include an email address on the Customer to enable Financial Connections’ return user optimization.

Accept a payment

Nota

Build an integration to accept a payment with Checkout before using this guide.

This guides you through enabling ACH Direct Debit and shows the differences between accepting payments using dynamic payment methods and manually configuring payment methods.

Enable ACH Direct Debit as a payment method

When creating a new Checkout Session, you need to:

Add us_bank_account to the list of payment_method_types.
Make sure all your line_items use the usd currency.

By default, collecting bank account payment information uses Financial Connections to instantly verify your customer’s account, with a fallback option of manual account number entry and microdeposit verification. 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.

Nota

To expand access to additional data after a customer authenticates their account, they must re-link their account with expanded permissions.

If the customer opts for microdeposit verification instead of Financial Connections, Stripe automatically sends two small deposits to the provided bank account. These deposits can take 1-2 business days to appear on the customer’s online bank statement. When the deposits are expected to arrive, the customer receives an email with a link to confirm these amounts and verify the bank account with Stripe. After verification is complete, the payment begins processing.

We recommend including the payment_intent_data.setup_future_usage parameter with a value of off_session when creating a payment mode Session for ACH Direct Debit so you can save payment method details.

Fulfill your orders

After accepting a payment, learn how to fulfill orders.

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 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.

Errores habituales

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 number	Token	Routing number	Behavior
`000123456789`	`pm_usBankAccount_success`	`110000000`	The payment succeeds.
`000111111113`	`pm_usBankAccount_accountClosed`	`110000000`	The payment fails because the account is closed.
`000000004954`	`pm_usBankAccount_riskLevelHighest`	`110000000`	The payment is blocked by Radar due to a high risk of fraud.
`000111111116`	`pm_usBankAccount_noAccount`	`110000000`	The payment fails because no account is found.
`000222222227`	`pm_usBankAccount_insufficientFunds`	`110000000`	The payment fails due to insufficient funds.
`000333333335`	`pm_usBankAccount_debitNotAuthorized`	`110000000`	The payment fails because debits aren’t authorized.
`000444444440`	`pm_usBankAccount_invalidCurrency`	`110000000`	The payment fails due to invalid currency.
`000666666661`	`pm_usBankAccount_failMicrodeposits`	`110000000`	The payment fails to send microdeposits.
`000555555559`	`pm_usBankAccount_dispute`	`110000000`	The payment triggers a dispute.
`000000000009`	`pm_usBankAccount_processing`	`110000000`	The payment stays in processing indefinitely. Useful for testing PaymentIntent cancellation.
`000777777771`	`pm_usBankAccount_weeklyLimitExceeded`	`110000000`	The 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 values	0.01 descriptor code values	Scenario
`32` and `45`	SM11AA	Simulates verifying the account.
`10` and `11`	SM33CC	Simulates exceeding the number of allowed verification attempts.
`40` and `41`	SM44DD	Simulates 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.

Additional considerations

Microdeposit verification failure

When a bank account is pending verification with microdeposits, the customer can fail to verify for three reasons:

The microdeposits failed to send to the customer’s bank account (this usually indicates a closed or unavailable bank account or incorrect bank account number).
The customer made 10 failed verification attempts for the account. Exceeding this limit means the bank account can no longer be verified or reused.
The customer failed to verify the bank account within 10 days.

If the bank account fails verification for one of these reasons, you can handle the checkout.session.async_payment_failed event to contact the customer about placing a new order.

OpcionalInstant only verification

By default, ACH Direct Debit payments allow your customers to use instant bank account verification or microdeposits. You can optionally require instant bank account verification only using the payment_method_options[us_bank_account][verification_method] parameter when you create the Checkout session.

OpcionalAccess data on a Financial Connections bank account

You can only access Financial Connections data if you request additional data permissions when you create your PaymentIntent .

After your customer successfully completes the Checkout flow, the us_bank_account PaymentMethod returned includes a financial_connections_account ID that points to a Financial Connections Account. Use this ID to access account data.

Errores habituales

Bank accounts that your customers link through manual entry and microdeposits don’t have a financial_connections_account ID on the Payment Method.

To determine the Financial Connections account ID, retrieve the Checkout Session and expand the payment_intent.payment_method attribute:

{
  "id": "{{CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID}}",
  "object": "checkout.session",
  // ...
  "payment_intent": {
    "id": "{{PAYMENT_INTENT_ID}}",
    "object": "payment_intent",
    // ...
    "payment_method": {
      "id": "{{PAYMENT_METHOD_ID}}",
      // ...
      "type": "us_bank_account",
      "us_bank_account": {
        "account_holder_type": "individual",
        "account_type": "checking",
        "bank_name": "TEST BANK",
        "financial_connections_account": "{{FINANCIAL_CONNECTIONS_ACCOUNT_ID}}",
        "fingerprint": "q9qchffggRjlX2tb",
        "last4": "6789",
        "routing_number": "110000000"
      }
    }
    // ...
  }
}

Learn more about using additional account data to optimize your ACH integration with Financial Connections.

OpcionalResolve disputes
Server-side

Customers can generally dispute an ACH Direct Debit payment through their bank for up to 60 calendar days after a debit on a personal account, or up to 2 business days for a business account. In rare instances, a customer might be able to successfully dispute a debit payment outside these standard dispute timelines.

When a customer disputes a payment, Stripe sends a charge.dispute.closed webhook event, and the PaymentMethod authorization is revoked.

In rare situations, Stripe might receive an ACH failure from the bank after a PaymentIntent has transitioned to succeeded. If this happens, Stripe creates a dispute with a reason of:

insufficient_funds
incorrect_account_details
bank_can't_process

Stripe charges a failure fee in this situation.

Future payments reusing this PaymentMethod return the following error:

{
  "error": {
    "message": "This PaymentIntent requires a mandate, but no existing mandate was found. Collect mandate acceptance from the customer and try again, providing acceptance data in the mandate_data parameter.",
    "payment_intent": {
      ...
    }
    "type": "invalid_request_error"
  }
}

This error contains a PaymentIntent in the requires_confirmation state. To continue with the payment, you must:

Resolve the dispute with the customer to ensure future payments will not be disputed.
Confirm authorization from your customer again.

To confirm authorization for the payment, you can collect mandate acknowledgement from your customer online with Stripe.js or confirm authorization with your customer offline using the Stripe API.

Precaución

If a customer disputes more than one payment from the same bank account, Stripe blocks their bank account. Contact Stripe Support for further resolution.

OpcionalPayment Reference

The payment reference number is a bank-generated value that allows the bank account owner to use their bank to locate funds. When the payment succeeds, Stripe provides the payment reference number in the Dashboard and inside the Charge object.

Charge State	Payment Reference Value
Pending	Unavailable
Failed	Unavailable
Succeeded	Available (for example, 091000015001234)

In addition, when you receive the charge.succeeded webhook, view the content of payment_method_details to locate the payment_reference.

The following example event shows the rendering of a successful ACH payment with a payment reference number.

{
  "id": "{{EVENT_ID}}",
  "object": "event",
  // omitted some fields in the example
  "type": "charge.succeeded",
  "data": {
    "object": {
      "id": "{{PAYMENT_ID}}",
      "object": "charge",
      //...
    "paid": true,
    "payment_intent": "{{PAYMENT_INTENT_ID}}",
    "payment_method": "{{PAYMENT_METHOD_ID}}",
    "payment_method_details": {
      "type": "us_bank_account",
      "us_bank_account": {
        "account_holder_type": "individual",
        "account_type": "checking",
        "bank_name": "TEST BANK",
        "fingerprint": "Ih3foEnRvLXShyfB",
        "last4": "1000",
        "payment_reference": "091000015001234",
        "routing_number": "110000000"
        }
      }
      // ...
    }
  }
}

View the contents of the destination_details to locate the refund reference associated with the refunded ACH payments.

The following example event shows the rendering of a successful ACH refund with a refund reference number. Learn more about refunds.

{
  "id": "{{EVENT_ID}}",
  "object": "event",
  "type": "charge.refund.updated",
  "data": {
    "object": {
      "id": "{{REFUND_ID}}",
      "object": "refund",
      //...
    "payment_intent": "{{PAYMENT_INTENT_ID}}",
    "destination_details": {
      "type": "us_bank_transfer",
      "us_bank_transfer": {
        "reference": "091000015001111",
        "reference_status": "available"
        }
      }
      // ...
    }
  }
}

OpcionalConfigure customer debit date
Server-side

You can control the date that Stripe debits a customer’s bank account using the target date. The target date must be at least three days in the future and no more than 15 days from the current date.

The target date schedules money to leave the customer’s account on the target date.

Target dates that meet one of the following criteria delay the debit until the next available business day:

Target date falls on a weekend, a bank holiday, or other non-business day.
Target date is fewer than three business days in the future.

This parameter operates on a best-effort basis. Each customer’s bank might process debits on different dates, depending on local bank holidays or other reasons.

Precaución

You can’t set the verification method to microdeposits when using a target date, as the verification process could take longer than the target date, causing payments to arrive later than expected.

Ver también

Save ACH Direct Debit pre-authorized debit details for future payments

Accept an ACH Direct Debit payment

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

Precaución

Nota

Determine compatibility

Create or retrieve a customerRecommendedServer-side

Accept a payment

Nota

Enable ACH Direct Debit as a payment method

Nota

Fulfill your orders

Test your integration

Send transaction emails in a sandbox

Errores habituales

Test account numbers

Test microdeposit amounts and descriptor codes

Test settlement behavior

Additional considerations

Microdeposit verification failure

OpcionalInstant only verification

OpcionalAccess data on a Financial Connections bank account

Errores habituales

OpcionalResolve disputesServer-side

Precaución

OpcionalPayment Reference

OpcionalConfigure customer debit dateServer-side

Precaución

Ver también

Create or retrieve a customer
Recommended
Server-side

OpcionalResolve disputes
Server-side

OpcionalConfigure customer debit date
Server-side