FAQ
Questions platforms ask about card and ACH payments
This card and ACH processing FAQ gives software platforms plain answers: what BrainMerchant does, how credit card and ACH bank payments work, and the rules to know as of October 2026.
Jump to About BrainMerchant (6) Card payments (5) ACH payments (5) Platforms, risk and compliance (3) This website (2)
BrainMerchant FAQ
About BrainMerchant
What BrainMerchant does as a payment gateway, what we process, who we work with and how to start a conversation.
What is BrainMerchant?
BrainMerchant is a payment gateway company. We provide credit card processing and ACH transaction services to software platforms.
As the gateway, BrainMerchant sits between your platform and the payment networks: the card networks for card payments and the ACH Network for bank payments. About BrainMerchant covers who we are and how we think about platform payments.
What payments does BrainMerchant process?
Credit card payments and ACH bank payments. BrainMerchant provides card and ACH payment processing for software platforms, so your platform can offer both to its customers through one provider.
ACH payments move between US bank accounts. To see where each one fits in your software, read about credit card processing for software platforms and ACH payment processing for software platforms.
Who are BrainMerchant’s customers?
Software platforms. Our customers are software companies that want their users to pay or get paid inside their software. On this site, “your customers” means those users: the businesses or people who pay or get paid in your software.
If you are deciding how payments should sit inside your software, embedded payments for software platforms compares the options.
Does BrainMerchant’s ACH work with bank accounts outside the US?
ACH is a US network; cross-border entries (IAT) follow their own rules, and our ACH side is for US bank accounts.
IAT is short for International ACH Transaction. BrainMerchant’s ACH services are available only for US bank accounts.
Does BrainMerchant publish pricing?
No, we don’t publish pricing on this site. Tell us about your platform, your customers and the card and ACH payments you expect, and we’ll walk you through it.
To understand the costs first, credit card processing fees explained and our guide to ACH processing fees cover how card and ACH costs work in general.
How do we get started?
Contact us through the BrainMerchant contact form or by email at the address below. Tell us what your software does, who your customers are and how they pay today, and we’ll walk you through what adding card and ACH processing with BrainMerchant looks like.
How BrainMerchant works with your platform outlines what happens from the first conversation onward.
Interchange, disputes, PCI
Card payment questions
How a card payment moves, what interchange is, and the dispute, surcharge and PCI rules your customers work under. General answers as of October 2026; confirm details with your provider or the rule source.
How does a card payment move?
A card payment goes through four stages:
- Authorization. The cardholder’s bank, the issuer, approves or declines the payment.
- Capture and clearing. The merchant confirms the sale, usually in a batch, and the transaction details are validated.
- Settlement. Net positions are calculated and funds move between the issuing and acquiring banks.
- Funding. The acquirer or payment facilitator pays the merchant, net of fees, on its own contract schedule.
BrainMerchant is the gateway between your platform and the card networks. To see who does what at each stage, compare a payment gateway vs payment processor.
What is interchange?
Interchange is a fee set by the card network and paid between banks: the merchant’s bank, the acquirer, pays it to the cardholder’s bank, the issuer. Merchants don’t pay it directly. They pay a merchant discount to their own bank, which bundles interchange with other fees.
Credit card processing fees explained breaks down interchange, network fees and markup.
How long can a cardholder dispute a card payment?
As of October 2026, the Visa Core Rules generally give the issuer 120 calendar days from the transaction processing date to raise a dispute. For some dispute conditions the clock runs from the last expected delivery date instead, but never beyond 540 calendar days from processing. The merchant’s acquirer then has 30 calendar days to respond, and acquirers often set shorter internal deadlines.
Separately, under the Fair Credit Billing Act a consumer has 60 days after the statement to send a written billing-error notice. ACH returns follow different rules: chargebacks vs ACH returns compares the two.
Can our customers add a surcharge to card payments?
As of October 2026, Visa’s US rules allow surcharges on credit cards only, with three conditions:
- Cap. The lesser of the merchant discount rate for that card or 3%.
- Notice. At least 30 days’ notice to the merchant’s acquirer.
- Disclosure. At the point of entry, at the point of sale and on every receipt.
Debit and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged, even when a debit cardholder chooses “credit” at the terminal.
As of October 2026, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and Puerto Rico prohibit surcharges by private merchants, and Maine’s ban covers debit too. Other networks set their own rules. This is general information, not legal advice; see our guide to card fees and surcharging.
Does using a payment gateway make our platform PCI compliant?
No. PCI DSS applies to any business that stores, processes or transmits cardholder data, or that could affect the security of the cardholder data environment. That includes service providers such as gateways and SaaS platforms, so each one answers for its own part of the payment, and using a gateway does not by itself make your platform compliant.
As of October 2026, PCI DSS v4.0.1 is the only active version. Its future-dated requirements took effect March 31, 2025, and no successor version has been announced. To work out which requirements fall on your platform, start with PCI compliance for SaaS platforms.
Timing, returns, rules
ACH payment questions
How ACH payments settle, when they can come back and what the Nacha rules ask before a debit is sent. General answers as of October 2026.
How long does an ACH payment take?
Under Nacha rules an ACH debit settles between banks the next banking day, or the same day if it is sent as Same Day ACH. Credits can be dated up to two banking days out. When your customers receive the funds depends on their provider’s funding schedule, and returns can still arrive afterwards. We don’t publish timing here; tell us what your flows need.
Our guide to how ACH payments work walks through the banks involved, debits and credits, and how entries settle.
Can an ACH payment be reversed?
It can come back as a return. The receiving bank (RDFI) sends returns under the Nacha rules, and they work differently from card chargebacks. As of October 2026, most returns must reach the originating bank (ODFI) by the opening of business on the second banking day after the settlement date. That includes insufficient funds (R01), a closed account (R02) and a business account holder’s claim that a debit was unauthorized (R29).
When a consumer says a debit was unauthorized, their bank can return it for up to 60 calendar days after the settlement date, with the consumer’s Written Statement of Unauthorized Debit. For what each code means, see ACH return codes explained.
What is the Same Day ACH limit?
As of October 2026, the Same Day ACH limit is $1 million per payment, in effect since March 18, 2022. Nacha has approved raising it to $10 million per payment, effective September 17, 2027.
Not every entry can go same day: International ACH Transactions (IAT) and Automated Enrollment Entries (ENR) are not eligible, and the originating bank pays the receiving bank a Same Day Entry Fee on each same-day payment. See Same Day ACH windows and limits.
What authorization do we need for an ACH debit?
Every ACH debit needs the payer’s authorization, in the form the ACH rules require for that kind of payment. The requirements depend on:
- How the payer agrees: online, by phone or in writing.
- Whether the payer is a consumer or a business.
- Whether the payment repeats.
When your customers collect authorizations inside your software, your payment screens shape whether each one meets the rules. ACH authorization requirements by SEC code sets out what each type of payment needs.
What does ACH processing cost?
Not on this site. Tell us how many ACH payments your customers expect to send and their typical size, and we’ll talk through costs with you.
For the general picture, our guide to ACH processing fees explains per-payment cost benchmarks, return fees and the Same Day Entry Fee that applies to each Same Day ACH payment.
Your platform’s role
Platforms, risk and compliance
Your platform’s role in the payment flow decides which rules apply to it. Roles depend on your contracts, so confirm yours with your bank or provider and with counsel.
Is our platform a Third-Party Sender?
A platform that holds the ODFI agreement and sends entries for its customers is a Third-Party Sender. If its customers hold the bank agreement, it is a Third-Party Service Provider. If it sends through another Third-Party Sender, it is a Nested Third-Party Sender. Which applies depends on whose name is on the bank agreement.
Under Nacha rules, a Third-Party Sender carries its own audit, risk-assessment and data-security duties, and since September 30, 2022 it must do its own ACH risk assessment rather than rely on another party’s. The newer Nacha fraud monitoring rules for platforms add to those duties.
Do we need to become a payment facilitator?
Not necessarily. It depends on the model you choose. Some platforms refer their customers to a payment provider, some build a provider’s processing into their software, and some become payment facilitators and take on the duties the card networks attach to that role. Each model divides the work and the risk differently between your platform, your provider and the acquiring bank.
Our guide to payment facilitator, ISO and partner models sets them side by side. If you are weighing the models, tell us which one you have in mind.
Do the 2026 Nacha fraud monitoring rules apply to us?
If your platform is a Third-Party Sender or a Third-Party Service Provider, yes. Phase 2 of Nacha’s fraud monitoring rules took effect June 19, 2026 (in practice Monday, June 22, because of the Juneteenth holiday) and removed the volume thresholds. Since then the rules have covered all non-consumer Originators, Third-Party Service Providers and Third-Party Senders, whatever their size. Consumer Originators are not covered.
That means each business on your platform that originates ACH payments needs a fraud monitoring program, and so does your platform if it is a Third-Party Sender or Third-Party Service Provider. Our guide to the Nacha fraud monitoring rules covers who is in scope and what a program involves.
Privacy and terms
This website
How we handle the messages you send us, and the terms for using these pages.
What happens to what I send through the contact form?
The form emails your message to us. We use your details to reply and to talk about your question, and for the other purposes our privacy policy describes. The policy also explains how we decide how long to keep information, and the choices you have.
Please don’t include card numbers, security codes, bank account or routing numbers, passwords, or other sensitive information such as health details or government ID numbers in the form or in an email. Describe what you need in general terms and we’ll follow up.
Where are the website terms?
Our website terms and conditions set out how you may use this site. Everything here, including this FAQ, our guides and the glossary, describes BrainMerchant or explains card and ACH payments in general. It is information only, not legal, financial, tax or compliance advice.
Payment rules and laws change, and how they apply depends on your circumstances. Confirm details with the rule source, your payment provider or your own advisers before you rely on them.
Talk to BrainMerchant
Still have a question about payments for your platform?
If this page didn’t answer it, ask us directly. Tell us how your customers pay today and which card and ACH payments you want to offer them.