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APIs/APMs/
ACH/eCheck

Last Updated: 24 September 2025 | Change Log

Automated Clearing House (ACH)/eCheck

A direct debit for US based merchants.

Automated Clearing House (ACH), often referred to as eCheck, allows your customers to pay by transferring funds directly from their bank account.

Note

Make yourself familiar with our API principles to ensure a resilient integration.

Product overview

Processing

Processing of ACH transactions happens overnight (or the next available working day at weekends and holidays). The handling bank issues regular reports outlining the successful and failed payments. Once the payment is successful, you can release the goods and services to the customer.

Feature summary

Payment typeCountriesCurrenciesRecurringRefundsPartial refundsReversalPartial reversalsChargebacks
Direct DebitUSUSD❌❌❌✅❌❌
Note

Chargebacks and refunds can occur, and are managed directly at acquirer level.

Get started

Get started using our API reference and set your headers.

Request

POST https://try.access.worldpay.com/apmPayments

Example requests

application/json
{
  "transactionReference": "Memory265-13/08/1876",
  "merchant": {
    "entity": "default"
  },
  "instruction": {
    "method": "ach",
    "narrative": {
      "line1": "MindPalace"
    },
    "value": {
      "amount": 750,
      "currency": "USD"
    },
    "paymentInstrument": {
      "type": "direct",
      "accountType": "checking",
      "accountNumber": "01234567890123456",
      "routingNumber": "012345678",
      "checkNumber": "012345678901234",
      "companyName": "Worldpay",
      "billingAddress": {
        "address1": "8500 Govenors Hill Drive",
        "address2": "Symmes Township",
        "postalCode": "45249",
        "city": "Ohio",
        "state": "US-OH",
        "countryCode": "US"
      }
    },
    "customer": {
      "firstName": "John",
      "lastName": "Johnson",
      "customerId": "43424",
      "email": "john@example.com"
    }
  }
}

Parameters

transactionReferencestring[ 1 .. 64 ] characters^[a-zA-Z0-9\-_/!@#$%()*=.:;?\[\]{}~+]*$required
merchantobject(MerchantV2)required
merchant.​entitystring[ 3 .. 32 ] characters^([a-zA-Z0-9\- ]*)$required

Used to route the request in Access Worldpay, created as part of on-boarding.

Example: "default"
instructionobject(InstructionV2)required

Object that contains the payment type and details.

instruction.​methodstringrequired

Type of payment method

Value"ach"
Discriminator
instruction.​valueobject(Value)required

The value of the payment.

instruction.​value.​amountinteger(int64)[ 1 .. 2147483647 ]required

The amount in the lowest denomination of the currency e.g. pennies for GBP, cents for USD.

Example: 12
instruction.​value.​currencystringrequired
Enum"AED""AFN""ANG""AOA""ARS""AUD""AWG""AZN""BAM""BBD"
instruction.​narrativeobject(NarrativeBase)required
instruction.​narrative.​line1string[ 1 .. 24 ] characters^[a-zA-Z0-9-., ]*$required

The description shown on your customer's bank statement for the payment.

Example: "MindPalace"
instruction.​paymentInstrumentobject(AchEftPaymentInstrumentV2)required
instruction.​paymentInstrument.​typestringrequired

The type of instrument.

Value"direct"
instruction.​paymentInstrument.​accountTypestringrequired

Account type.

Enum"checking""savings""corporate""corporateSavings"
Example: "checking"
instruction.​paymentInstrument.​accountNumberstring[ 1 .. 17 ] characters^[0-9]*$required

Account number of direct debit account.

Example: "123456789"
instruction.​paymentInstrument.​routingNumberstring= 9 characters^[0-9]*$required

Routing number of direct debit account.

Example: "123456789"
instruction.​paymentInstrument.​checkNumberstring[ 1 .. 15 ] characters^[0-9]*$

Check number of the direct debit account.

Example: "123456789"
instruction.​paymentInstrument.​companyNamestring[ 1 .. 40 ] characters^[0-9]*$

Company name if a corporate account.

Example: "123456789"
instruction.​paymentInstrument.​billingAddressobject(AchEftBillingAddress)required
instruction.​paymentInstrument.​billingAddress.​address1string[ 1 .. 80 ] characters
instruction.​paymentInstrument.​billingAddress.​address2string[ 1 .. 80 ] characters
instruction.​paymentInstrument.​billingAddress.​address3string[ 1 .. 80 ] characters
instruction.​paymentInstrument.​billingAddress.​citystring[ 1 .. 50 ] characters

City.

instruction.​paymentInstrument.​billingAddress.​countryCodestring
Enum"AD""AE""AF""AG""AI""AL""AM""AN""AO""AQ"
instruction.​paymentInstrument.​billingAddress.​postalCodestring[ 1 .. 15 ] characters

Postal code.

instruction.​paymentInstrument.​billingAddress.​statestring[ 1 .. 30 ] characters

State code of the billing address in ISO 3166-2 format.

Example: "US-OH"
instruction.​customerobject(CustomerDetailsAch)required
instruction.​customer.​firstNamestring[ 1 .. 22 ] charactersrequired

Your customer's first name.

instruction.​customer.​lastNamestring[ 1 .. 22 ] charactersrequired

Your customer's last name.

instruction.​customer.​customerIdstring<= 15 characters^[a-zA-Z0-9]*$

Your unique reference for the customer so that the 'pay faster next time' function can be used during checkout. This allows the shoppers chosen bank to be stored for their next payment.

Example: "44528abcd"
instruction.​customer.​emailstring

The customer's e-mail address.

Example: "customer@worldpay.com"

Response

Successful request response

  • an HTTP code 201
  • a paymentId which is unique to the payment. Store this "id" to be able to manage the payment later
  • a url to redirect your customer to the APM provider to complete the payment
  • a link to query the payment status
  • an object which will give flow information such as method (e.g. ach) and type (direct)
  • a commandId generated by us identifying a single merchant interaction (e.g. cmdYNdIHBPJwbkjLiykzTx0)

Example response

{
  "paymentInstrument": {
    "method": "ach",
    "type": "direct"
  },
  "paymentId": "eyJrIjoiYXBtLXNlcnZpY2UtZGVmYXVsdCIsImxpbmtWZXJzaW9uIjoiNi4wLjAifQ==.BnnxxcMle38OazhwbF8J+4rtJi8CAq:Y3zUOn1dw6VWfvx:PHL5L0S+5ara5vz6ouV5yBmVUQCiSwQjs+1x5qJIJxAKWMWc2Mlb1doricEYlzsZIRIGCflvnYu1Ns8g1S0+66n6wCELiB9OHfX7cdDZM8QaH19DiFbmMAchPSTyxQUry+EjhI+4Av0FZgKybTQW8Eq5Lj6LFzcEh8YV9gKLyAJXKJwZGztDqfCZz9C54i7Qm6PznXY+lb8gjX08QbPuM7eN9CDfUDc8S4J3uauHV:lzKfpwhCpCj20XtN:AkTEXfvJEm8PKFuVlX10AbTZIsCMVbuMS1sIqrgbendo:b1Rfx8XquR8u:dBYr5a70wYkewsxOvrYXmLip3FvyJdzRzXf3LyUgHUqZh:ulvr2BwGjsfY6y32HN+osTE4dworCDzhGpsvEwJ:GRwLUNfeKBzVqK6WhJGqM+s8XpCA==",
  "lastEvent": "authorized",
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "https://try.access.worldpay.com/apmPayments/eyJrIjoiYXBtLXNlcnZpY2UtZGVmYXVsdCIsImxpbmtWZXJzaW9uIjoiNi4wLjAifQ==.BnnxxcMle38OazhwbF8J+4rtJi8CAq:Y3zUOn1dw6VWfvx:PHL5L0S+5ara5vz6ouV5yBmVUQCiSwQjs+1x5qJIJxAKWMWc2Mlb1doricEYlzsZIRIGCflvnYu1Ns8g1S0+66n6wCELiB9OHfX7cdDZM8QaH19DiFbmMAchPSTyxQUry+EjhI+4Av0FZgKybTQW8Eq5Lj6LFzcEh8YV9gKLyAJXKJwZGztDqfCZz9C54i7Qm6PznXY+lb8gjX08QbPuM7eN9CDfUDc8S4J3uauHV:lzKfpwhCpCj20XtN:AkTEXfvJEm8PKFuVlX10AbTZIsCMVbuMS1sIqrgbendo:b1Rfx8XquR8u:dBYr5a70wYkewsxOvrYXmLip3FvyJdzRzXf3LyUgHUqZh:ulvr2BwGjsfY6y32HN+osTE4dworCDzhGpsvEwJ:GRwLUNfeKBzVqK6WhJGqM+s8XpCA=="
    }
  },
  "_actions": {},
  "redirect": "",
  "commandId": "cmdSQBwMoFu3i2bNWmLGZLid0"
}

Errors

Check out our API reference for the full error code schema.

Next steps

Manage your ACH/eCheck payment.