The US has been at the forefront of many innovations, but when it comes to payment methods the US lags behind much of the world. Not only are their payment rails slow and expensive, there are quite a few to choose from, creating confusion that is almost unique to the USA. 😕

FedNow went live in July 2023 and is equivalent to FastPayments and SEPA, with instant payments at much lower costs. However many of the large US banks are yet to implement it. 

ACH is a clearing house method supported by over 10,000 institutions. Batch payment files are synced up to five times a day. But some institutions can sync less frequently. As a result payments can take anything from hours to three days. Expect one day on debits and two on credits. Fees are 1% and capped at $10.

Wire is an evolution of old telegraph wire payments and is a point to point solution, with no central clearing the payments are processed on the same day, but the fees can be up to $35 per payment.

Nook supports two types of payment methods to US companies with varying costs. The difference in cost is displayed in Nook at the point of payment to help you make the right choice.

ACH is the lowest cost method by-passing the global Swift network and those Wire fees. While our provider syncs regularly with the clearing house, your recipient's bank might not.

SWIFT incurs additional fees, but does cut down on payment time in some cases.

Sadly there is more. Now you have chosen the method you want, you still need the correct routing code. Some banks use the same routing code for ACH and Wire/SWIFT, but others do not. And while most banks will have one Wire code for the whole country, many banks have different ACH codes for each state.🫠

To pay ACH we need an ACH routing code. To pay by SWIFT we need a BIC or Wire routing code.

To help, we guide you through the process by identifying if a routing code is ACH or Wire, and we will recommend alternatives to help you save money. 🙌