Pay by Bank is Dutchie's ACH payment offering, allowing you a speedy checkout using a linked bank account (via Plaid's platform, much like Paypal or Venmo). In banking, payments, and the ACH industry, you'll hear the term "velocity" to refer to pacing of transaction attempts in a given period, spend limits per order or limits designed to protect against unusual transaction activity. These velocity limits help reduce fraud, making it more burdensome and difficult for any bad actor to attempt to access the Pay by Bank platform.
This article explains how velocity limits work for Pay by Bank and how these fraud-prevention measures help protect you as the customer, the dispensary, and Dutchie as the point of sale.
What are velocity limits?
In Pay by Bank, velocity refers to fraud-prevention checks that evaluate the speed, frequency, and amount of transactions within defined time periods.
Velocity checks are designed to:
- Detect potentially fraudulent behavior
- Stop bad actors before financial harm occurs
- Protect customers, dispensaries, and Dutchie
These safeguards are not intended to frustrate legitimate customers. However, due to how fraud protections are structured, well-intentioned customers may occasionally trigger a velocity limit. For a full list of velocity-related declines, see the declines & errors table here; all velocity-related decline codes begin with "V0".
How are velocity limits determined?
Velocity limits are fraud-prevention controls that evaluate transaction behavior to help protect Pay by Bank customers from financial harm. They are applied across the platform as part of our broader efforts to detect and prevent fraudulent activity.
What Pay by Bank users may experience
As a Pay by Bank user, you may encounter a velocity limit if your transaction activity triggers a velocity check.
What to do if you receive a velocity decline
If you receive a velocity-related decline, here are some steps to take:
- Wait before retrying your transaction, as velocity limits may take time to reset
- If available, consider completing your purchase using an alternative payment method