ACH (Automated Clearing House) and related bank services — direct debit, electronic check, and international equivalents like Germany's Elektronisches Lastschriftverfahren — move money directly between bank accounts instead of through a card network.
Benefits and drawbacks
On the plus side: straightforward implementation, lower cost than card processing, and broad market acceptance. On the downside: real chargeback-style vulnerabilities, longer settlement times than a card authorization, non-sufficient funds (NSF) risk, and the real headache of debt collection when a payment fails.
Push vs. pull
Push payments let the consumer initiate the transfer from their own bank account, without ever handing sensitive details to the merchant. Pull payments — the more common model — have the merchant collect banking information upfront and initiate the debit directly.
What to evaluate
Whether you need push, pull, or both; whether a fraud protection guarantee matters to you; how much settlement delay you can absorb operationally; and how accessible this option actually is to your customer base. Pricing is typically transactional or percentage-based, and substantially lower than standard card rates either way.