EXCEPTIONAL DIFFERENCES
 Dial-up
Most banks or processors allow you to submit transactions
via a dedicated secure dial-up (modem) connection. The advantages
are that there is no need to encrypt the data and for the
processor implementation is fairly easy. On the down side,
communications can be terribly slow for large quantities.
Also, you may receive busy signals if the processor's banks
of modems are tied up.
High
Speed / Internet
Most banks and processors don't offer this as an option due
to the fact that their systems were designed before the revolution
of the Internet or because they aren't processing enough transactions
to make the additional communications method cost effective.
On the other hand, our processor has heavily invested to make
sure their platforms take advantage of the latest technologies
to guarantee that transactions are processed quickly and accurately
whether it is one transaction or a million.
Data
Encryption
We know how important that data security is to your company
and to your customers. Our processor has gone to great lengths
to ensure secure transactions processing from start to finish.
The datacenters used are all designed to meet or exceed all
current laws and security regulations. To assure that our
processor maintains this level of security, they undergo regular
security audits and employ the latest encryption techniques
available.
Returned/Changed
Items Notification
Almost all banks are still sending out at least some of their
notifications of returned or changed items via a mailed report
or a fax. On the other hand, our notifications are electronic.
This enables you to automatically update your database or
post to your accounting system without the need for manual
entry. In addition to saving you time and money by not having
to enter these items manually, your company benefits from
the elimination of keypunch errors.
Funding
Notification
As strange as it may seem, most banks and processors will
only notify you of the transactions that reject or are returned
unpaid. The systems APS uses will not only notify of which
items were rejected, but you will also be notified of which
items have been paid. This, in addition to notification of
each item that has been received and is being processed, allows
for a complete record for record accounting for each of every
transaction that is submitted for processing.
Change
Items Auto-Apply Notice
When processing transactions through the Federal Reserve's
ACH Network, banks will many times send over information to
correct account information that has been sent over in an
erroneous way. It's then typically up to the company who sent
the transactions to manually update their database with the
corrected account information. Depending on the number of
transaction being submitted, this can be quite an extensive
process. Luckily, the systems APS uses automatically updates
its Notice of Change database with this information immediately
when it's received so that there is no need for a company
to perform this process. The next time a transaction is submitted
with the incorrect information, our systems automatically
correct it and send it out for settlement.
Auto-Reject
Known Bad Accounts
Because of the huge number of transactions our processor performs,
they have been able to build an extensive database of bad
account numbers and closed accounts. Therefore when a transaction
with a bad account is sent for processing, it will immediately
reject the transaction rather than waiting for it to complete
the normal reject process through the ACH Network which would
take up to 4 days.
Auto-Correct
Savings or Checking
Many times a customer will supply an account number but not
properly indicate if it's a savings account or a checking
account. This can cause problems because many financial institutions
will reject a transaction if the account type is not properly
indicated. Our system helps solve the problem by automatically
correcting the account types as part of our standard service.
Credit
Union Conversion
Many credit unions and small banks don't perform their own
ACH processing and instead turn to larger banks or third party
processors to handle their ACH processing for them. In order
to properly process these types of transactions, sometimes
the account number and/or the ABA numbers must be changed
or modified. To handle these and other similar situations,
our systems employ a powerful set of tools to automatically
correct this information. This technology is updated regularly
and assures you the most accurate and return free processing
available.
Bank
Merger ABA Correction
The number of banks merging increases each day. It's critical
to have the most up-to-date information possible for processing
transactions from an institution that has merged with another
financial institution. By employing our technology, the necessary
modifications to the ABA number and/or account number will
be handled automatically to assure you the most accurate and
return free processing available.
Auto-Reject
Unqualified Banks
Believe it or not in this modern day world of electronic financial
processing there are still a few banks and institutions which
are unable to process transactions electronically. By immediately
notifying you of an institution which cannot process transactions
electronically (rather than waiting 3-4 days) you can ask
your customer for another form of payment. As an option our
processor can convert the electronic transaction into a paper
check, which can be deposited in the normal fashion.
Pricing
Policies
The list of charges and fees that most banks and processors
charge could have gone on and on. At times, it seems like
there's a charge just to give them a call on the phone. At
APS we like to make things much simpler. We have a per transaction
submitted fee, along with a per rejected item fee, and a low
monthly access fee. There's no per batch surcharge, monthly
minimums, NSF surcharges, batch minimums, maximum number of
batches per day, or any other unreasonable charges. With a
pricing policy such as this, you might think that the fees
that we do charge would be higher than our competitors. On
the contrary, we find that our prices are typically less than
our competitors whether it is for a small merchant or the
largest of corporations.
Resubmit
Options
In the event that a transaction is returned Non-Sufficient-Funds
(NSF) most banks/processors give you notification of the returned
item and then it's up to you to attempt to collect the item
by manually resubmitting the item. APS on the other hand gives
you a number of NSF handling techniques:
- You can have your company setup for
manual retry which allows you to contact the customer or
get a confirmation of sufficient funds before resubmitting
the item.
- You can have the item immediately
resubmitted for another attempt.
- You can wait a certain number of days
and then automatically have the item resubmitted for another
attempt.
- You can have the item automatically
and strategically resubmitted according to the rules you
define.
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