Using ACH method to pay for international money transfer

If you need to send some money overseas or settle an overseas invoice, you might be considering using an ACH payment. ACH transfers are easy and cheap within the US — but what about ACH international payments?

4/10/20251 min read

ACH stands for Automated Clearing House. In the US, ACH payments are managed and overseen by Nacha¹.

ACH bank transfers cover several common types of payments, including direct deposits, bill pay and e checks. Chances are you get paid through ACH, and may also pay many of your household bills this way.

In an ACH payment, the payer will instruct the bank to make a transfer, which will then be processed later in a batch with other payments, at a set time. That cuts costs and makes the system manageable for banks.

ACH payments are popular because they’re cheap and easy to initiate. They’re not usually the fastest means of getting money from one account to another, but they’re reliable and can be used for bulk payouts, like running payroll.

However, they’re typically limited to US use only — although the availability of cross-border ACH payments is improving all the time. More on that later.