Banks have offered debit blocking for many years; this keeps unauthorized parties from extracting funds from a company’s bank account with an ACH debit transaction. Unfortunately, some ACH debits are legitimate, and are also rejected by the debit block.
PNC Bank is now offering a more advanced debit blocking function, which covers the following options:
- Block all debit transactions
- Enter broad screening criteria
- Enter specific instructions to accept only the following items:
· Accept one-time debits
· Limit the number of times a recurring debit can post
· Limit the time period over which an authorization is accepted
· Specify a fixed, variable, or maximum debit dollar limit
Also, if debits do not match the screening criteria, they are sent to the company in an Unauthorized Transaction Report (available as an Excel spreadsheet), which an authorized person can peruse and then contact the bank to accept or reject debits.
PNC does not have broad geographic coverage, and may not be located near the reader. However, this advanced level of debit blocking may be offered to some degree by a local bank. If these features are important to you, print out this blog and discuss the above features with local banks to see what is available.