Broaden your current market by offering your customers the convenience of paying by electronic checks. Distinguish yourself from your competition, expand your target market, and increase sales and profits.
Electronic checks enhance Internet and MOTO sales by offering an alternative payment method for customers who don't have a credit card, who prefer to pay by check, or whose credit card transaction was declined. With Optimal electronic checks, our leading-edge risk-management and fraud-prevention systems give you more accurate predictions of checks that will clear.
The Optimal electronic check advantage
- Save time on the manual check submission process.
- Process regularly scheduled check payments with our recurring billing tool.
- Reduce labor costs associated with handling paper checks.
- Bank accounts are validated in real time using several internal and external databases.
- Transactions are screened using the largest negative database in the industry.
- Detailed information is provided with a declined transaction.
- NSF checks are resubmitted automatically on behalf of clients.
- View transaction details in real time and import them into your order-entry system.
- Obtain more accurate predictions of electronic checks that will clear.
- This solution is specialized for Internet, telephone, mail, and fax sales.
Connectivity Options
Optimal Payments provides a single interface that allows you to process both credit/debit card and electronic check transactions. You can process electronic checks three ways.
Application Program Interface (API)
This server-to-server method allows you to connect your shopping cart directly to our payment servers. With this method, when consumers enter their check information online, the transaction can be immediately transmitted to Optimal Payments in real time. If you already process credit cards through the Optimal Payments gateway, then there is no additional integration work required to add check-processing capabilities.
Batch Processing
You can combine multiple transactions into one batch file and upload it to our secure payment servers. Following a batch file upload, you will receive a real-time acknowledgement that the file was received and processed. In addition, all transaction details are provided in the Optimal Payments back office, including declined transactions and returns.
Virtual Terminal
You may choose to accept check information over the telephone, through the mail, or by fax and process transactions securely through our Virtual Terminal. Should a transaction not be accepted, you will receive a real-time response, giving you the opportunity to immediately notify the customer about alternate payment options, without losing the sale.
Protection Tools
With our leading-edge risk-management and fraud-prevention systems, you will have more confidence that your electronic checks will clear.
Bank Account Validation
The Optimal Payments electronic check product will verify with several internal and industry-standard databases whether the bank account information provided is accurate and whether a check writer has a history of writing NSF checks.
MICR Correction Database
If a bank account is invalid, we will automatically review whether the bank routing number has changed due to such occurrences as a bank merger, and the routing number will be corrected before it is sent for processing. This action increases the likelihood of receiving an approved check and also reduces administrative returns and costs.
Transaction-Screening System
The Optimal Payments transaction-screening system is composed of several customizable databases that work together to evaluate transactions for indicators of fraud. In addition to the proprietary Optimal Payments database, we will verify with a number of industry-standard databases.
Return Processing
The Optimal Payments system will automatically re-submit NSF electronic checks on behalf of our clients in order to streamline the collection of outstanding payments. The system also has intelligent technology, so that we can more effectively time our collection activities.
Online Reporting
Real-time. Online. Detailed.
Optimal Payments provides a full-service reporting system to view transaction activity, detailed network decline information, and account statements. All reports can be downloaded in CSV format and subsequently saved in a format appropriate for input into your company's internal information system.
