Take checks without arguing with them.
Clover Check Acceptance adds paper and electronic checks — and ACH bank payments — to the same account that takes your cards. The check is converted electronically when you accept it, screened before it settles, and the funds land in the same deposit account your card volume does.
Runs on the processing account · Screening and any warranty decided by the program’s check-services provider · A returned item is always possible
Where a check still wins
On small tickets, cards won. On a four-figure invoice the arithmetic turns around: a percentage fee scales with the amount, and a check’s cost mostly does not.
The trades and anyone who invoices
Roofers, remodelers, HVAC, landscapers — businesses whose typical payment is a settlement of work done, not a swipe. A meaningful share of those customers still reach for the checkbook, and turning them away has a cost too.
B2B and professional services
Accounts-payable departments pay by check and ACH because their controls are built around them. Meeting them on that rail is easier than converting them to a card — and on their invoice sizes, cheaper for you.
Rent-like and recurring obligations
Storage units, leagues, tuition, service contracts: repeated fixed amounts from the same payers, where ACH’s flat cost profile beats handing over a percentage every month for the privilege of being paid the same amount.
What actually happens to the check
1 It is converted where you stand
The paper check is read and converted to an electronic item at acceptance — on the device or through the virtual terminal. No bank run, no deposit slip, no drawer of paper waiting for Friday.
2 It is screened before it settles
The item is checked against the program provider’s verification data before it is accepted for processing. Screening reduces returned items; it does not abolish them, and this page will not pretend otherwise.
3 It settles beside your card volume
Funds are deposited to the same bank account as your card settlements, on the program’s timing — which is not identical to card timing, and the agreement’s schedule is the controlling one.
4 Warranty coverage, where it applies
Eligible items can be covered by the provider’s warranty service, so that a qualifying returned check is reimbursed under the program’s conditions. Eligibility rules, limits and each claim decision belong to the provider — coverage is a warranty with conditions, not guaranteed funds.
The part the brochure skips
A check can still come back. Screening happens against the data available at the moment of acceptance; an account can be closed, empty, or disputed afterwards. Warranty, where an item qualifies, shifts that loss under defined conditions — it does not repeal it, and items outside the program’s conditions remain your risk, as they would at the bank.
The program’s pricing is its own. Check services carry their own per-item and program fees, set by the provider and stated in its agreement. The card markup published on this site describes the card account and does not price this product.
ACH has rules of its own. Bank-account payments run under NACHA rules with their own authorization requirements and return windows — longer than a card decline. A returned ACH days after the work is done is a real scenario to plan around, not an edge case.
Who actually processes your payments
Processing partner
Hardware partner
Your merchant account is held with North (North American Bancard) or CardConnect CoPilot, and their acquiring sponsor bank moves your money. Pcnaid is an independent referral partner — we submit your application at the markup we publish and the processor decides it. We are not the processor, the bank, or an agent authorised to speak for either. The Clover Official Partner badge is displayed under our reseller agreement with Clover; Clover, North and Payanywhere are their owners’ trademarks, not ours.
Asked at the counter
Does screening mean a check can never bounce?
No. Screening reduces returned items and the warranty service covers eligible ones under the program’s conditions, but no arrangement makes every check good. Items outside the conditions remain your risk.
Do I need separate equipment for checks?
Check acceptance runs on the processing relationship, with capture on supported devices or through the virtual terminal. Which fits your counter is part of the application conversation, not a second procurement.
Who decides a warranty claim?
The program’s check-services provider, claim by claim, under its published conditions. Pcnaid is a referral partner: we can explain the conditions, and we cannot decide, expedite or override a claim.
Checks ride on the account. Start there.
Check acceptance is a feature of the processing relationship, so the merchant account application is the first step. Tell us your typical invoice size and how many arrive by check — that is the whole qualifying conversation.
Applying carries no obligation. Underwriting, approval and final rates are determined by the processor.
Not sure this is the right account? See every way to apply →