You can send an ACH transfer to another person by logging into your bank, adding their account as an external payee using their routing and account numbers, and pushing the funds through. Most banks handle these transfers for free, and the money lands in the recipient’s account within one to two business days. Daily limits at major banks run anywhere from about $1,000 to $25,000 depending on the institution and your account history.
Three Ways to Send the Money
The most direct route is your bank’s external transfer feature inside online or mobile banking. You add the other person’s bank details once, and from then on you can push money to their account whenever you need to. This gives you the most control over timing and amount.
Bill pay works too. People mostly use it for utilities and credit cards, but you can add an individual as a payee. Your bank will either send the funds electronically through ACH or, if the receiving side does not accept electronic payments, mail a paper check. For person-to-person payments, the electronic route is standard.
Peer-to-peer apps like Zelle, Venmo, and PayPal also run on ACH infrastructure. When you link your bank account and send money, the app initiates an ACH transfer in the background. Some platforms feel instant because the app fronts the funds to the recipient, but the actual bank-to-bank settlement still follows normal ACH timelines.
What You Need From the Recipient
Three pieces of information do the job:
- Their full legal name, exactly as it appears on the account. A mismatch can delay or reject the transfer.
- The nine-digit routing number that identifies their bank.
- The account number for their specific checking or savings account.
The recipient can find both numbers on the bottom of a paper check or in the account details section of their banking app. Enter every digit carefully. If you provide the wrong account or routing number, the money could land in a stranger’s account, and you may not be able to get it back.1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Wrong Information on a Money Transfer
Verifying the Account the First Time
Before your bank will send money to an outside account, it needs to confirm you can actually access the destination. There are two common approaches.
Micro-Deposits
Your bank sends two small deposits, usually under a dollar each, to the recipient’s account. After one to two business days, you confirm the exact amounts to prove the account exists and that you can see its transactions. Slow but reliable, and still the standard method at traditional banks.
Instant Verification
Many banks and payment apps now let you log into the recipient’s bank through a secure portal and verify the account in seconds. You will see this most often on peer-to-peer platforms and newer online banks. The tradeoff is that you are sharing login credentials with a third-party verification service, though these are generally encrypted and do not store your password.
Sending the Transfer
Once the account is linked and verified, the transfer itself takes only a few minutes:
- Log in to your bank’s online portal or mobile app.
- Find the section labeled “Move Money,” “Transfers,” or “Send Money.”
- Select the external account you previously linked as the recipient.
- Pick which of your accounts the funds should come from.
- Enter the dollar amount and choose whether to send immediately or schedule a future date.
- Review every field before hitting submit.
Many banks treat ACH transfers as final once processing begins, so a typo in the amount or account number can be hard to fix after the fact. After you confirm, save the transaction confirmation number. If anything goes wrong, that number is your starting point for tracing the payment.
Fees and Daily Limits
Standard outbound ACH transfers are free at most banks when you initiate them online. Some charge up to $3 for an external transfer, and expedited or next-day delivery often costs more. Receiving an ACH transfer is almost always free. Starting a transfer by phone or in a branch usually costs more than doing it online.
Banks cap how much you can send through ACH in a single transaction or per day, and these caps vary widely. At major banks, daily limits run from about $1,000 to $25,000, and some also set a monthly ceiling. Longer account history or higher balances can raise your limit. You can usually find your specific cap in your bank’s transfer settings or by calling customer service.
Same-Day ACH has its own ceiling set by NACHA at $1 million per transaction.2Nacha. Nacha Wants to Hear From You on Increasing the Same Day ACH Payment Limit That is far higher than what any consumer bank will allow for a personal transfer, so in practice your bank’s own daily cap is what actually binds you.
How Long It Takes
Standard ACH transfers settle within one to two business days. The ACH network processes payments throughout the business day, with settlement occurring multiple times daily.3Nacha. The ABCs of ACH You may see the funds leave your available balance right away while the transaction still shows as “Pending.” That gap means your bank has initiated the transfer but the receiving bank has not finished processing it yet.
Same-Day ACH is available at most banks for faster delivery. NACHA operates three same-day processing windows each business day, with the last submission deadline at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time. If your bank offers same-day service and you submit before the cutoff, the recipient’s bank receives the funds the same day. Whether the recipient can spend those funds immediately depends on their own bank’s hold policies.
ACH does not process on weekends or federal holidays. A transfer initiated Friday evening will not begin settling until Monday. If speed is critical and the amount is large, a wire transfer is faster but significantly more expensive.
When Something Goes Wrong
You Sent It to the Wrong Account
This is where most people get burned, and the protection is thinner than you would expect. If you enter the wrong account number and the transfer goes through to an unintended recipient, your bank may not be able to recover the funds. The receiving bank has no obligation to pull money back from its customer’s account because you made a data-entry error.1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Wrong Information on a Money Transfer If the routing and account number combination does not match a valid account, the transfer bounces back. But if it happens to match someone else’s account, you could lose the money entirely.
Reversing a Transfer
NACHA rules allow an ACH reversal for genuinely erroneous entries, such as a duplicate payment, wrong dollar amount, or wrong date. The reversal must reach the receiving bank within five banking days after the original settlement date.4Nacha. ACH Network Rules – Reversals and Enforcement Contact your bank immediately if you spot a mistake. After the five-day window closes, your only recourse is to work directly with the recipient.
A reversal is only for errors, not for regret. If you authorized the transfer and it went to the right account but the recipient did not hold up their end of a deal, NACHA reversal rules do not apply. You would have to resolve that with the recipient or through legal channels.
Unauthorized Transfers
If someone initiates an ACH transfer from your account without your permission, federal law limits your liability under Regulation E, but only if you report quickly:
- Within 2 business days of learning about the unauthorized access, your maximum liability is $50.
- After 2 business days but within 60 days of receiving your statement, liability can go up to $500.
- After 60 days, you could be on the hook for the full amount of any transfers that occurred after that window.
These limits apply only to truly unauthorized transfers, where someone accessed your account without your knowledge or consent.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Regulation E – 1005.6 Liability of Consumer for Unauthorized Transfers If you authorized the transfer yourself but were tricked by a scam, the protection is much weaker. Federal law does not give ACH users the same chargeback rights that credit card holders have. When you voluntarily send money to a scammer via ACH, your bank has no legal obligation to reimburse you.
When you do report an error or an unauthorized transfer, the bank must investigate within 10 business days and report results within three business days after finishing. If it needs more time, it can take up to 45 days but must provisionally credit your account within 10 business days so you have access to the disputed funds during the investigation.6eCFR. 12 CFR Part 205 – Electronic Fund Transfers (Regulation E) – Section: 205.11 Procedures for Resolving Errors
Tax Considerations
Personal transfers can carry tax consequences depending on why you are sending the money.
Gifts
If the money is a gift, the IRS lets you give up to $19,000 per recipient in 2026 without needing to file a gift tax return.7Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 Above that, you need to file Form 709, though you likely will not owe actual gift tax unless you have exceeded the lifetime exemption. Married couples can each give $19,000 to the same person, effectively doubling the annual exclusion to $38,000.
Payments for Goods or Services
If you receive ACH payments for goods or services through a third-party payment platform, the reporting threshold for Form 1099-K is $20,000 in gross payments and more than 200 transactions in a calendar year.8Internal Revenue Service. Treasury, IRS Issue Proposed Regulations Reflecting Changes From the One, Big, Beautiful Bill to the Threshold for Backup Withholding on Certain Payments Made Through Third Parties Both conditions must be met before the platform is required to report. Purely personal transfers between friends or family, like splitting a dinner bill, are not reportable regardless of amount. Reporting thresholds do not determine whether income is taxable, though. If you are paid for freelance work via ACH, that income is taxable whether or not a 1099-K ever shows up.