With advances in technology, paper checks have become a thing of the past. Businesses must spend time at the bank to deposit these checks and wait for them to clear. Customers must remember their check book and to pay their bills on time. Luckily, there is a better way, ACH payments – widely known as eChecks. ACH payments can save your practice up to 70% vs standard credit card processing fees.
These types of payments are preferred by businesses and customers alike because they are more cost-effective, convenient, and safer than traditional checks.
What is ACH?
ACH stands for Automated Clearing House – it is an electronic network that allows people to directly transfer funds between two bank accounts.
Benefits of ACH for Dental Practices
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Lower Costs
In 2020, less people are using cash than ever before. This means, your business must accommodate your customers by accepting credit cards and debit cards. As you are likely aware, this is not free. Merchants take up to 3% of your collections. Automated clearinghouse can have significantly lower processing rates. By collecting your patients’ bills using ACH you can save your office a ton of money.
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Security
Paper checks can easily be compromised. If checks are sent to your office via mail – then they are handled by many hands. The patient’s name, address, routing and checking numbers are all on the check, leaving the information susceptible to fraud.
ACH payments eliminate the security risks of paper checks, increasing the chance that your customers will feel safe and do business with your company.
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Faster Processing Time
Banks typically prefer ACH payments over standard checks, so funds are made available faster.
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Recurring Billing for your Dental Savings Plan / Dental Membership Program
If your office has a subscription-based membership program, then ACH payments are a great option for your practice and your patients. Businesses that offer their customers a subscription face many challenges. Payment processing can cost be a huge expense for the practice due to the number of recurring charges. Customers may forget to pay their bill, which would result in unpaid invoices and a decrease in cash flow.
ACH payments can help address both issues. By accepting ACH payments your business will save money with a lower processing fees and patients’ bills can be automatically collected from their account, which reduces the number of unpaid invoices.
If your practice is interested in accepting ACH payments to drastically reduce the cost and manpower of managing your in-house dental savings plan, DentalStores can help! Visit DentalStores.com or call 1-800-746-7657 to learn more.