ACH Payments vs GoCardless Bank Account Data

ACH Payments provides paid ACH and credit or debit card processing through a web virtual terminal and API. The terminal handles single, future-dated, and recurring payments, with scheduling, recurring billing, user permissions, customizable receipts, and exportable reports. Website tools create hosted payment pages with custom fields for one-time or recurring charges. Its QuickBooks module supports ACH and card transactions, recurring or one-time payments, reporting, and tokenization. A ChurchSquare integration updates payment histories in ChurchSquare while activity remains trackable in the virtual terminal. The company says tokenization replaces bank-account data so it need not sit on client servers or databases. The terminal is described as Level 1 PCI compliant and lists address, velocity, checking-account, and identity verification tools. ChurchSquare special pricing is $0.35 a month, billed as $20.00 monthly for three accounts plus reporting and 800# support, with additional transaction and return fees specified.

GoCardless Bank Account Data is an API for businesses that need account details and transaction data from connected bank accounts. It connects through bank PSD2 APIs and can return account holder names, account identifiers, IBANs, transaction dates, counterparties, descriptions and amounts, plus current and available balances. It can retrieve up to 24 months of transaction history, with continuous access lasting up to 90 days. Data refreshes on demand, and responses use JSON. To connect, an end user chooses a supported financial institution, accepts a GoCardless-hosted consent screen and authenticates through the institution. API requests use an authorization token created with a Bank Account Data portal user secret. GoCardless provides a quickstart guide and instructions for importing the API schema into Postman. Availability is limited to EEA countries subject to PSD2 where GoCardless operates as an authorized AISP. Banks may restrict requests to as few as four calls per account per day. Account verification is available only to paying customers; new accounts are unverified by default. The service is paid, with pricing on request, and is available via API and web.