ACH Transfer
ACH Transfer
Also known as Automated Clearing House transfers, the ACH transfer is a huge electronic network, which is located in the United States and deals with financial transactions. With more than $21 trillion dollars worth of transactions being put through ACH transfers, this is one of the largest financial networks in the world to date.
The ACH network deals with a number of funding methods – including direct deposit, E-Checks and E-commerce payments as well as Federal tax payments and a range of other different payment processes. All ACH transfers are processed through a clearinghouse, which will handle the crediting and deducting from bank accounts. The Federal Reserve Banks are together the largest automatic clearinghouse operator in the whole United States and process over 60% of interbank ACH transactions, which is a huge amount of money to be put through a single financial institution.
How ACH Transfers Work
What is funny about ACH transfers is that to the customer, ACH transfers seem no different to e-checks or bank transfers because on the outside – the process seems same. The difference between these transfer methods is only noticeable on the back-end. Thus, users of the ACH transfer will see little, if any difference between cutting an e-check, doing a wire transfer, and transferring money via ACH transfers.
A few years a go, all paper checks had to be cleared through the United States federal reserve. This guideline changed, with the check cashing process becoming more streamlined. Now, most checks and e-checks no longer clear through the United States Federal Reserve before they will go to the payee. This is where ACH transfers differ, because all ACH transfers still run through the United States Federal Reserve before they are put through.
From what a customer sees, bank to bank transfers, e-checks, and ACH transfers are all interchangeable terms, because they are not be aware of what goes on behind the scenes. However, the poker room or merchant will see the money transfer as a completely different entity, due to the nature of the United States Federal Reserve bypass. Additionally, because there is one more “stop” in the transfer process in the ACH transfer, the process to get the cash from one bank account to another takes a bit longer.
Poker Rooms Accepting Deposits Using the ACH Transfer
Poker players wishing to deposit using ACH transfer must note that no poker rooms allow the ACH transfer as an acceptable method for online players to fund their online poker accounts. Poker rooms such as PokerStars, Absolute Poker, Party Poker, Ultimate Bet, Titan Poker, Aced.com and several other poker rooms do accept either e-checks poker deposits, or poker bank transfers – which again are quite similar to the ACH transfer in the eyes of the poker player.
