Is my ACH payment secure?

The short answer is yes! This article will explain everything you need to know about paying by ACH transfer on GiveGab.

GiveGab Customer Success avatar
Written by GiveGab Customer Success
Updated over a week ago

What is an ACH payment?

An ACH (Automated Clearing House) payment is a type of electronic bank-to-bank payment method used commonly across the United States. Also referred to as an ACH transfer or transaction, these types of payments move funds directly from your bank account into another, avoiding the involvement of a third-party credit card company such as Visa or Mastercard.

ACH payments are generally charged lower fees because they are usually larger donations. On GiveGab, if your giving day is utilizing ACH payments, there is likely a minimum donation amount required to pay with this method. Then, there is a flat fee for the transaction rather than a percentage-based fee.

Paying by ACH transfer is preferred by some donors, rather than paying by credit card.

How does GiveGab process ACH payments?

GiveGab processes ACH payments through Plaid. Plaid is a trusted financial service that powers ACH transfers through some of your favorite smartphone apps, including Venmo and Acorns.

When you choose to connect your financial accounts to GiveGab using Plaid, you will be prompted to enter the username and password associated with your bank or financial account. Plaid then links your accounts to GiveGab so you can share your data and complete your transactions.

To help keep your data safe, Plaid doesn't share the username and password for your financial institution with GiveGab. Once you give Plaid permission to share your financial data, Plaid securely transfers it from your financial institution to GiveGab through their application programming interface (API).

GiveGab never handles your payment information directly. We outsource our payment processing to ensure that we are abiding by the strictest levels of donor security and safety.

How do I know my payment is secure?

GiveGab is a PCI-DSS Level I and SOC 1 Type 2 certified organization. Security requirements to be certified for both of these standards are rigid. As part of this, we are constantly performing external infrastructure scans as well as internal code scanning. Additionally, we are required to undergo and pass external penetration tests to ensure our systems and data are not vulnerable to security breaches.

This also means that we only partner with other businesses who adhere to as strict a code of security in order to protect our users' data.

Plaid doesn't share your personal information without your permission, and they don’t sell or rent it to outside companies. More than 4,000 financial apps and services are powered by Plaid, and GiveGab is proud to be among them as donor data protection is our top priority.

For more information on GiveGab's security measures, click here.

To read about how Plaid handles its users' data, click here.

For GiveGab's Privacy Policy, click here.

Want to know how to make a donation with an ACH transfer? Check out this article!

Feel free to chat in using the blue chat bubble if you have any questions. 👋

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