ACH Echeck transaction rejected immediately

Let me route you to the correct support, austin_strings.

When it comes to payments, I'd recommend reaching out to our QuickBooks Payments Support team. This way, our agents there can verify what causes the transaction to be declined.

You can view their contact details through this link: QuickBooks Payments. Just a heads up, our QuickBooks Payments support agents are open every Monday to Friday from 6 AM to 6 PM PST.

I've also added this reference for more information about processing eChecks: Accept ACH payments and eChecks.

I'll be around if ever there's anything that I can help. Stay safe!

Did you ever get this figured out?  I have the same thing happening. 

I know it's not the bank, because I have an account there, and setup myself as a customer to test, and I can successfully accept ACH Echeck payments from my personal checking account, but a customer's account fails. 

I spent 4 hours on the phone with support (the contact details link from Adrian_A's post takes you to a team that claims they cannot help.  They told me to call the number on the back of my quickbooks debit card, which is a journey that I'd rather not explain, but I took the journey.  That person then redirected back to a different phone number, where I eventually hit merchant services after navigating the phone tree). 

I'd suggest going to Merchant Services first, although they also claim that they cannot help.  Told me that there is a mysterious (and apparently uncontrollable) algorithm that flags some accounts, and if it's flagged, then I should wait "at least 2 weeks" before I try using that account again.  There's apparently no way to override this according to the rep that I talked to, which seems absurd because if my AMEX has a transaction that they think is fraudulent, I get an immediate text, to which I can reply and say "yes this is me" and it'll go through.

New to the quickbooks world, but I've been around software for a very long time.  The hoops and hurdles for support are unreal, the error messages are unactionable as an end user, as for this particular situation the lack of a believable answer to something that obviously isn't a "mysterious algorithm that sporadically flags things with no possible corrective action" is an interesting way to try to close a support case.

Welcome to the Community, dw886.

This isn't the kind of impression I'd like you to have with QuickBooks Online and support. If you want to provide feedback to make the program better, you can definitely do it within your QuickBooks Online company file.

Here's how:

1. Select the Gear icon at the top.
2. then click Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions.
4. Then select Next to submit feedback.

Your valuable feedback goes to our Product Development team to help improve your experience in QBO. You can track feature requests through the QuickBooks Online Feature Requests website.

Get back to me if I can be of more help with your journey in QuickBooks. I'm just a post away.

I am experiencing the same issue.  I have tried to process payments for 3 separate clients.  I am getting the following error:

transaction was declined because the bank account is incorrect, or there is a security concern.

Strange enough, I have 2 separate QBs accounts (in the process of dissolving my other entity).  I have these same clients on my other QB account.  Because of the nature of one of their services (Tax Returns) I was able to process payments on these same clients.  Been trying to process their payments for their monthly accounting but QB has declined payment for all  3 clients.  

I have been waiting on the chat for an hour and half.  No response.  I can't get anyone on the phone.  I am very disappointed in the service.  

This isn't the kind of experience we want you to have when processing payments in QuickBooks Online (QBO), lmonk1.

I'm here to help you process your payment successfully.

Trying a few basic troubleshooting steps can help resolve the error, using a private browser or incognito window to help eliminate any error that can be occurring in the system. Here's how depending on your session: 

• Google Chrome: Ctrl + Shift + N
• Internet Explorer/Firefox: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Safari: Command + Shift + N

If this works, go back to your regular session and clear your browser's history. If it doesn't work, then I recommend trying a different supported browser. 

If the error persists, I'd recommend contacting our Payments Support Team. They have the tools to verify your account and check further what has caused the error.

You may also consider visiting our reference page to check out any similar articles for your future tasks: Help Articles.

I'll be waiting here for your response if still have questions with payment concerns. Have a great day!

Same problem. Spent hours on the phone with support and hit 3 different teams that all deflected to another team. The payments team was the second team, and they eventually punted me to someone else. It's not a browser issue, if I go into the payment section of my merchant account, I can see that they're being declined by however the ACH transaction is process. It's a joke that this software cannot even process a check payment reliably. I've setup 3 accounts, all from the same bank, and the only one that works is my own personal account. So this business software will basically only process payments from me to myself, and not from my customers. Completely unreliable, and without any error messages, there's zero chance you can track this down on your own. I'm beyond frustrated with it. I'm assuming they'd rather have you run a credit card so you're paying 3% per transaction instead of 1%, and they're working to use this frustration to force you to pay triple the processing rate. 

I was told two days ago by Customer Support that the issue was with the customer's bank. Okay, the account was fairly new, customer checked with bank, which says nope, no hold, no reason at all why the account can't be used for an e-check (the bank even knew exactly how much was being paid). The customer and I tried again today and the payment was declined by (1) QuickBooks Desktop Pro 2020 Receive Payments; (2) QB email invoice View& Pay Invoice; and (3) logging in to Merchant Services online. Today - via phone and email - I was once again told by Customer Support that our customer has to coordinate with her bank to get "permission" to pay us by e-check. The customer's bank? Bank of America. (and yes, "why don't you try a credit card?")

OMG, I have spent seven phone calls and many, many hours regarding the same issue.  The payments department of merchant services says it is the customer's bank rejecting the payments.  Not true!!  We have checked.  It has happened to numerous customers all since mid February.  QuickBooks engineers, please get this issue resolved.  Also, I was charged a "reject" fee two times and they will not reimburse even though the error is on the QuickBooks side.

To those on here who have had this problem; was it ever resolved? I recently switched over from Wave to QB because Wave would only let me process 10 ACH invoices per day, and did not have any cap to the 1% charge (I was told QB had a $10 maximum charge for ACH). I just tried to run my first ACH payment and received this error. This is for a customer that I've had for 5 years, and using the same banking information that I've used for years with Wave. 

I was hoping that this was maybe because this is a new account, and it is (in the US) a holiday weekend, so maybe my account is not ready to accept ACH? However, hearing all of the horror stories on here has me concerned that I may have made a bad decision to move over to QB, and I'd like to get it figured out before I get too far down the rabbit hole and past the point that I can request a refund and cancel services. 

I'm here to help you get the support you need, Yoohoo.

This type of concern requires your information to review your account and identify the reason why the ACH E-check transaction is rejected. Since the QuickBooks Community is a public platform, it would be best to get in touch with our actual support team to handle this in a secure environment.

Here's how you can reach us:

1. Go to the Help menu at the upper right.
2. Select Contact Us.
3. Enter your concern.
4. Click Let’s talk.
5. Choose Get a callback.
6. Type in your contact info.
7. Select Confirm my call.

You can check out this article for our contact information. Click on the QuickBooks Online (QBO) drop-down to see the most updated support schedule: Support hours and types.

Also, do check our Help articles page in case you want to learn some best practices on managing your QBO account. From there, you can read great articles that can guide you in your future tasks.

Know that you're always welcome to post here in QuickBooks Community if you have any other concerns while processing ACH transactions.

@Yoohoo - I have never received a firm answer for any rejected payments. I have been given many different excuses by many different QuickBooks people.  The rejections always seemed to be at random.  The rejections randomly started in December (including an account that had been processing for months using the same bank account). However, I will tell you, cross my fingers this doesn't jinx my account, it has been 2 months since I have had a rejected transaction.    

I am also having this issue. Every single customer that has tried to pay me has been declined (from small local banks to Wells Fargo).  I confirmed and I know my customers are using the appropriate routing and account details.  Over four different calls to QuickBooks, I was offered the same solution to pay the credit card processing rates which is entirely unacceptable and is a bait and switch sales tactic.  (For my particular invoice, the increase in fees was 2,533% from $10 to $2.9%.)

I was told that "the system" is restricting ACH payments due to a security issue.  The agent said they cannot "manipulate the system" and to have the customer process the payment again after 24-48 hours.  A previous customer had already attempted to process the ACH payment 8 times over a 34 day timeframe.  They ended up driving to my location to deliver a paper check to me (HOW EMBARASSING!).  Because of this, I experienced an availability of funds delay while my bank cleared the check.  It is unacceptable that every customer who tries to pay me becomes an experiment to see if the payment will be allowed to be processed by QuickBooks Payment.  As much as I love discovery and science, this is not a sound business practice.

The agent implied that my account was too small to qualify for a greater level of service or attention which was why I was not transferred to a more senior agent to discuss the issue with.  After reading how others in this discussion thread have had a similarly poor experience, I also feel I have made a mistake with this payment processing choice and will be looking outside of Intuit for a payment processing solution.

I am a CPA and QuickBooks Pro advisor offering accounting services to my clients.  These kinds of issues erode my credibility as an advisor and are highly embarrassing.  After my personal experience and reading this thread, I cannot recommend this as a payment solution to any customer and would advise anyone looking for a payment processor to avoid Intuit/QuickBooks Payments for this service. 

I would also not recommend the Green Dot/QuickBooks Checking account that I attempted to sign up for when applying for QuickBooks Payments.  The checking account was declined, no one could tell me why, and repeated attempts to apply were also denied.  During multiple calls to try to resolve this separate problem, I was told that the ACH fees are NOT waived with the QuickBooks Checking account which was the entire reason I was interested in signing up.

I will also leave this feedback as directed in this discussion by the QuickBooks Team. 

Now I am off to go lick my wounds and spend more time finding a solution to this problem that should not exist.

Chiming in on this topic. This has been an ongoing source of frustration for me. I submit 25 invoices weekly for ACH processing and rarely do they all go through. The customers have funds in their account and the transaction is definitely being rejected by QB Payments - the bank(s) never see it on their end (and they would know if their system is rejecting it). Like others, I've spent (wasted) too much time on the phone with Customer Service Agents who either have no idea what is really happening or just plain admit that there is nothing they can do about it. Primary responsibility for fraud should (and I believe does) lie with the bank - QB should be a backstop, not a primary driver of failed transactions due to 'security concerns'. I cannot run my business like this any longer and am in the process of onboarding a new payment service provider. I am hoping they provide better service. 

I was having this same issue, I tried some of the recommend actions, no help.  My browser is Firefox.  I finally went to the QBO desktop app and everything is working fine from there.

I too have had the same issue. I have been trying for 7 business days straight now. Calling support and chatting with support. I have gotten so many reasons for why my ACH processing is not working. From clients bank to I haven't been approved to process ACH payments. I tried my personal bank for $5.00 and came to find out its not even transmitting to the bank so that wasnt the issue. Then I was told the bank information I am entering is incorrect. (For all 14 invoices, including my bank account information) They are all correct, I have been billing these clients for some time now. 

Then once I was approved to process ACH's, I continued to get the same error message. I called, 2 agents from QBO support team ended up hanging up on me. I then tried Chatting and support team asked to wait 24 hours to resolve the issue. They claimed "back end team" is resolving the matter. This was 4 days ago. 24 hours went by, same issue and have been stuck in a loop since. Been waiting 24 hours for 4 days now, still no resolution. During this time, I have asked to speak to the back end team or some that can actually answer some questions. I have been told 7 times, your situation has been escalated and will be top priority for us. Your issues will be resolved in 24 hours. Again, top priority? Its been 7 business days?

I read all the replies and seems like no one has had a legit reason to why this is happening to QBO users. This is really frustrating and I cant seem to get answers.  

If someone was able to get this error message corrected, please let me know and give me some hope. 

Hi, MKP.

I appreciate your time and effort spent with one of our support agents. I've checked your case, and I can see that our team is working on this.

I know you've already contacted our phone support. However, I'd suggest contacting them again for updates and follow-ups regarding your issue. They have all the necessary tools to pull up your account.

Please don't hesitate to leave a comment below if you have other payment concerns. I'll be right here to provide additional assistance. Keep safe.

MKP128,

I was never able to get an answer to this. One agent hinted that QB has some internal rules built into their software. While these rules are likely designed for fraud prevention, they also cause many clean transactions to reject. I gave up trying to get an answer. I solved the issue by switching to another processor. The new processor is significantly less expensive and all my transactions go through. 

HELP!!! I read through all these comments and NO ONE FROM QUICKBOOKS IS HELPING!! Do you guys understand we are trying to run a business. 

I pretty much gave up. Since I have made the post, I have chatted and called multiple times. Live agents on Chat end up leaving the chat when they cant resolve the case. Agents on phone calls "escalate" the case to a supervisor and ensure that I will get a call in 24 hours, still has not happened. Last 2 weeks, I have called 5 times, spend about close to 3 hours EACH call, no resolution. They claim the "back-end team" is working on it and assure me it will be resolved in 24 hours. Still yet to be resolved. Call again and say its the banks, they are raising RED FLAGS but as a test, I used my personal Bank account to ACH - it wont process, called my bank, bank says there has not been any inquiries nor has a transaction even transmitted. I notify QB agent and they say to use another form of payment. THAT IS NOT A SOLUTION. I have re-occuring payments with my clients every month, ACH is the best way for me to conduct my business and I want to be able to use ACH due insane transaction fees with Debit or CC but they dont seem to understand.

I called Tuesday and was promised a call back from a supervisor within 24 hours, still waiting......they don't seem to care enough to resolve this matter and the AGENTS keep closing the case, so every time I call, I have to explain the same situation that I have been dealing with since January 5th. Its now January 19th.....agents probably get paid extra for closing cases or something but cant close a case when its not resolved.

Not sure what to do or how I can get in contact with someone that can actually fix my problem. 

At this point, I am willing to PAY to fix the problem with YOUR software. Please help, I will send money, just not through QB because it does not work. I can venmo or zelle but please HELP!!!!

It seems to me this is a way for us to have our customers use their credit cards. Due to the fact ACH processing fees are only 1% vs 2.5% and a .25 transaction fee.

Dave from QBooks just fixed the issue!! Seems the issue was. QB had my QuickBooks account number was incorrect on the backend. 

Had to go to my Account and Settings. Go to manage account.

Than go to Account Profile.. Than edit banking account. 

Where it says new bank account. Copy paste the account number and routing number from QBooks. 

Once done.. Log out and log back in.

I just process the transaction I was having an issue with. I tried two ACH banking accounts and both were giving me the same error. I hope this solution works for you!! 

Please forgive me for any grammar error I'm just so excited right now!

Unfortunately, the only solution is to switch to another processor. Since I switched I have not had any issues. 

Glad this worked for you but that explanation seems unlikely. Maybe if all my transactions were being rejected this might work, but it's only a few and almost always after an NSF occurs. I changed processors and haven't had any problems. 

I am SUPER happy for you!!! and Appreciate you sharing the information with me. 

I followed your instruction step by step and still getting the same error message :(. Glad it worked out for you bud, I wish I can get a person like Dave. God Bless Dave.