What's A.C.H. and E.F.T.?

Electronic Fund Transfers (E.F.T.) are processed through the Automated Clearing House (A.C.H.) system, run by banks together with the federal government. It's a batch processing system, which means transactions are sent and then run after 5 PM that business day.

The system uses older technology, but it's ubiquitousness is one of the main reasons it's still in use today. It's also mature and reliable.

How is it different than Stripe?

Stripe processes credit and debit card transactions instantaneously, whereas payments from A.C.H. transactions can take anywhere from 3-10 business days. Although Stripe can also handle A.C.H. transactions, we partnered with ACH Works to ensure backwards compatibility with users migrating to Sport Keeper from Rock Gym Pro.

Can members update payment methods?

With Stripe members can login to their member profile, and update their credit card information. They can also add and remove new cards to serve as payment sources.

A.C.H. billing systems do not offer methods of updating payment information like account or routing numbers. Unfortunately a new membership must be started if a member needs to switch accounts. This is one of the big limitations of recurring billing via A.C.H.

How are failed payments handled?

Each day we'll reach out to the A.C.H. system to collect the membership payments that have been processed that day. If the payment was not successful, Sport Keeper will email your member on your behalf to initiate the conversation so that you can help them get this fixed.

This also happens with card based memberships, however in the case of Stripe the user is guided to setting up a new payment method without any interaction from you.

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