When a payment is returned, it means that the funds could not be collected from your customer's bank account.
These returned payments occur because while the payment is deposited within 2 business days, banking systems have a 2-7 business day turnaround for most returned ACH (bank account) payments.
Some banking systems include returned payment reasons with a turnaround time of 60 days-3 years.
The timeline typically looks like this:
- You receive an ACH payment from a customer.
- That payment is deposited within 2 business days.
- An ACH payment return notice is received from the customer’s bank a few days, weeks, months, or even years later.
- The funds are pulled back from your bank account due to the return.
When this occurs, both you and the customer are sent an email notification including the reason for the return, the name of the payor, the date originally submitted, and the amount.
Autobooks has no control over an ACH return, any concerns need to be addressed by the customer's bank directly.
Common Reasons for Returned Payments
Reason | Description |
Insufficient Funds | This means that the customer's available account balance isn’t enough to cover the withdrawal from the bank account. |
Account Closed | This means that a previously active account was closed by the customer. |
No Account/Unable to Locate Account | This means that although the structure of the account number is valid, the account number doesn’t match up with the individual identified in the payment. Alternatively, it may indicate that the account isn’t open. |
Invalid Account Number | This means that the structure of the account number isn’t valid. Account numbers need to be entered twice as a method of preventing this from occurring. |
Authorization Revoked by Customer | This means that the customer who authorized the ACH payment has revoked authorization through their bank. |
Payment Stopped | This means that a stop payment order has been placed on a recurring payment transaction via the customer's bank. |
Non-Transaction Account | The payment was submitted from a non-transaction account (an account against which transactions are limited or prohibited). |