Unlimited free ACH. For all.

ACH is a low-cost bank-to-bank transfer that runs through the ACH network, which is governed by NACHA and the Federal Reserve. It's US-only and typically takes 3-7 business days with most providers. On Nickel, ACH clears in 2-3 business days and costs $0.

Wire transfers operate on a different network entirely. They're faster (usually same-day) and can be used for international payments, but most banks charge $15-$40 per wire. For regular business payments, ACH is the better fit. Wires make sense for one-time urgent transfers or international payments.

ACH credit is when you push money from your account to someone else's, like paying a vendor. ACH debit is when you pull money from someone else's account into yours, like collecting on an invoice.

Many banks let you push money via ACH credit for free, but don't offer ACH debit. ACH debit is uniquely valuable because it lets you bill your customers directly through a secure payment link. Your customer enters their bank info into the link and authorizes the payment, which means they never have to share their account details over email or phone, and you never have to send yours.

Nickel offers both ACH credit and ACH debit for free. One-time payments are available on every plan, and auto charge (storing a customer's payment method and charging it automatically) is available on Plus and Pro.

Yes, Nickel offers free ACH debit transactions on all plans. When you send an invoice, your customer gets a secure payment link where they enter their account and routing number and authorize the payment. Nickel pulls the money from their bank into yours.

Yes, Nickel offers free ACH credit transactions on all plans. When you pay a vendor through Nickel bill pay, the money pushes from your account to theirs via the ACH network. There's no per-transaction fee and no percentage markup.

Yes, bill pay by ACH is free on Nickel, and invoicing by ACH is free on Nickel. There's no per-transaction fee, no percentage, and no volume limit. The free plan does have a $25,000 per-transaction cap, but the ACH itself costs $0 on every plan.

One thing to note: if you want to store a customer's payment method and auto-charge them on a recurring schedule, that requires Plus or Pro. But if your customer fills out an invoice with their bank info and you collect payment once, that's free on all plans, including Core.

Yes, the Nickel Core plan is $0/month and includes unlimited free ACH with no per-transaction fees. The main limitation on Core is a $25,000 per-transaction cap. If your invoices are under $25,000 and you don't need recurring invoices or autopay, Core covers everything you need.

ACH costs pennies to process, but most platforms charge 0.5%-1% for ACH anyway. That's a markup on something that barely costs anything. Nickel doesn't mark up ACH. We make money in other ways, such as paid software subscriptions and products like Nickel Balance. You can read more about how Nickel makes money here.

ACH returns can happen for a number of reasons, including insufficient funds, a closed account, or incorrect bank information. When a return happens, you'll see it in your Nickel dashboard along with the specific reason code. Nickel doesn't charge you a fee for ACH returns. You can look up any return code and what it means on our ACH return codes page.

Yes, your customers can pay without a Nickel account. They get a payment link, enter their email and their account and routing number (the same info that's printed on any check), confirm the amount, and pay. They get a receipt by email right away.

You can deposit checks through Nickel Balance. But the account and routing number printed on the front of a check is the same information your customer would enter into a Nickel payment link. The payment link is faster, more secure (no paper floating through the mail with their banking info on it), and saves both of you a trip to the post office. That said, if they do send a check, you can still deposit it.

By default, ACH payments go straight to your bank account once they clear. If you use Nickel Balance, you can receive payments instantly and earn interest on idle cash, but that's entirely optional.

Yes, functionally they're the same thing. Both use the ACH network to move money between bank accounts. "E-check" is just another name for an electronic check that's processed via ACH rather than on paper.

Yes, ACH runs through a secure bank-to-bank network governed by NACHA and operated by the Federal Reserve. Every transaction goes through your bank's verification before it clears. Compare that to mailing a paper check, which has your full account and routing number printed on the front and can be intercepted, copied, or altered. ACH is actually the safer option. On Nickel, all payment data is encrypted and we're SOC 2 Type II and PCI-DSS certified.

Nickel supports credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover) at 2.9% flat, physical check deposit (free), and real-time bank transfers. You can also accept Apple Pay and Google Pay through Nickel at no additional cost. Your customers choose their preferred method when they open the payment link.

Yes, limits vary by plan. On the free Core plan, the per-transaction limit is $25,000. On Plus ($35/month) and Pro ($300/month), the limit is $1M per transaction.

Yes, Nickel has a native two-way integration with both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. You can create an invoice in QuickBooks, send a payment link through Nickel, and the payment syncs back to QuickBooks automatically when it clears. ACH is free through both integrations, and there's no extra charge for connecting them.

Yes, ACH is free for all customers, regardless of how they integrate with our product. Nickel API lets you connect your systems to your Nickel account: pull data, initiate actions, and collect free ACH payments from your customers. Nickel doesn't offer a payments API for marketplaces or software companies to build on.

There are two pieces. First, ACH is free on every payment. No percentage, no per-transaction fee, no matter how large the invoice. Second, for credit card payments (2.9%), you can set a global default to absorb the fee, pass the full fee through, or share a percentage of it with your customer. You can also override that setting on any individual invoice, which is useful if you need to grandfather a few key accounts while passing the fee to everyone else. Between free ACH and credit card fee pass-through, most Nickel customers bring their processing costs to $0. You can see what you'd save with the savings calculator.