Preventing heart attacks for 9 years, and counting.
I just had an electronic debit on my checking account from “ACHMA VISB BILL PYMNT”. I had no clue what this was. If you google that phrase with the quotes (before writing this post) you get 19 hits and they’re all bizarre foreign, spam or porn sites. Not that I’m saying that all foreign sites are spam or porn sites, it just that none of them had any useful information and therefore I was convinced that something got hacked somewhere and I had somebody stealing money out of my checking account.
When I called the bank, they had no other information about the transaction, no phone number, no company name, nothing. I’ve never had this charge before. The name meant nothing to me. I was totally freaking out. I was ready to close my account. Right before I pulled the plug on my account, I finally discovered/remembered that I had paid my Verizon Wireless bill with an online checking account draft this month instead of my usual method of credit card.
When Verizon charges your credit card they at least have a sem-intelligible entry of “VZWRLSS*MY VZ VB P 800-922-0204 GA 30004 US”. I can guess that it’s VeriZonWiReLeSS, or MYVeriZon, or heck, there’s even a phone number embedded right there.
What do you get if you use the bank draft? “ACHMA VISB BILL PYMNT” no matter how you squint, there’s no way on earth that you’re going to figure out that “Verizon” is in there somewhere. They had 21 characters to convey their 7 letter company name and they blew it. On the credit card charge, they give you 3 pieces of identifying information — and even let you know that it was a US based charge.
So, I’m writing this blog post so that hopefully the next person that google’s “ACHMA VISB BILL PYMNT” won’t have the panic attack that I had. You can thank me via Comment or PayPal, and then you can yell at Verizon for writing such useless information into our checking account statements.
Interestingly enough, as Lola has pointed out, there’s another derivative out there: ACHIVR VISB BILL PYMN TEL, or maybe even ACHIVR VISB BILL PYMNT. So, apparently, the “MA” or the “IVR” after the “ACH” means something. The “ACH” must mean “Automated clearing house” for the bank account withdrawal. Which then makes me think the IVR stand for “Interactive voice response” and it could be an indicator that the bank account withdrawal was authorized over the phone? Can anybody confirm this?
Of course, this still leaves the “MA” and the “VISB” known to someone ONLY at Verizon.
Also, in response to M Kimball, I’d be curious if any Verizon employee has ever visited this page. Hey, random Verizon employee, if you’re reading this, say “Hi” and please shed some light on the subject.
I truly appreciate your help. I already called my bank to dispute this transaction. Now, I am gonna have to call them to revert the dispute.
Freeking VERIZON WIRELESS. I was never gonna think ACHMA VISB was a Verizon Payment.
Thanks a lot – Muchas Gracias
BIG thanks!!!!
THANK YOU! I was one of those about to have a heart attack!
Thank you so much! I googled a few time and then got your post. Wish you came up first. PHEW!!!!!f
I am so glad this is here. I did NOT have any idea what this charge was by the name. This is ridiculous.
I wait until the last minute to go through bank statements and saw all of these weird charges! I was freaking out!! This explains it. Thank You!!
Thank you ! You are right. It is Verizon
THANK YOU!
I googled it because I thought I was hacked! What a relief you have given me.
I too thank you for your very useful information…also the first time we had used the checking account to pay the bill rather than charge any more on the card…Love google’s searches!
ACHMA=Automated Clearing House using Mobile App. Indicates a check payment using the routing number and account number via the mobile application registered to Verizon.
Lil Baby,
I like the “MA” being “mobile app”, but I had used the website to pay the bill. So I’m afraid, at least in my case, that the mystery still stands.
I had been wondering the same thing too! Thank you for clearing it up for me. Mary
Holy baby Cheez-Its – THANK YOU!
When I tell you you sir are a life saver. Still waiting to call Verizon asa they open. So upset.
thanks this helped me
Hahahaha. 2019 and you’re still relevant. I was ready to spend hours in the phone with the bank to figure it out… But thought I’d Google first. Thanks!
i do accounts payable for a large company …thank you so much
thank you so much for posting this….
…aaaand it’s still happening in July, 2019. Thank you for your post. It’s still obviously a problem since you were the #1 google hit. (although I think I’ll try the recipes for Achma – Georgian Cheese Lasagna!)
I work for a bank and ran across “ACHIVR VISB BILL PYMN TEL” today. Discovered that this is also a Verizon Wireless charge and when you search for it you get a bunch of scam sites also. Thanks for posting this article. It pointed me away from the scam sites and in the right direction!
Thank you for your info it help a lot e give people stress less.
Thank you! I came across the same description, and your post was the first thing that appeared in the Google search. Your comments saved me a lot of time searching for answer.
PANIC!!!
GOOGLE IT.
Relax.
Thanks.
THANK YOU AND BLESS YOU!!!
I am in charge of processing payments for our church and had recently setup Verizon on autopay as they were sending the statements just after I had processed the final batch for the months and would be overdue by the time the next batch was finished (we do 2 per month). Our Accountant called upset over the mystery charge on the bank statement. Thank the Good Lord, I found your blog when I googled it.
LOL! April 2019 and this just happened to me. I’ll add my voice to the “THANK YOU” chorus. Only five more months to the 5th anniversary of the original post. Either Verizon has a sense of humor, or they have NO social media team. Probably the latter.
Thank you for the post. Like you, I switched from cc payment to paying directly from the bank account. I would have never figured it out without your post.
I am here because I just checked my bank account and didn’t know what the withdraw was for. I did a Google search and ended up here. Thank you!!!
Called Verizon to complain and the lady was kind and said that my concerns will will be escalated. Lets see if it changes.
Thank you❤
5 years later and Verizon still doesn’t have this resolved. What a stupid mess of customer service? Thank you for your post. I bet you never thought this would still be helping folks years later.
Leon,
I just paid my Verizon bill via bank draft, and it still caught me by surprise (and I’m the guy who wrote the article). Somebody at Verizon must just like to give their customers heart attacks.
*** and 4-years later, you are STILL A ROCKSTAR…!!! *** You really DID SOLVE MY ONGOING MYSTERY (or puzzle – ongoing for months, as I am behind on reconciling business banking) With the amount of debits that hit the account monthly, hard to actually PIN IT DOWN, and for 2-months consecutive, I keep PUSHING OFF completing the reconcile, all because I could NOT FIGURE IT OUT… THIS one post, saved me an unknown WASTED amount of time, which is a super rare commodity these days, so I am grateful that you are THAT person, and thoughtful enough to PAY-IT-FORWARD. Really, the courteousness, will hopefully be repaid tenfold for you…!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU – AGAIN…!
Hi Joyce,
Thanks for the kind words. It is completely frustrating that this has been going on for 4 years with no change. How many thousands of hours have been wasted by people panicking over the indecipherable phrase “ACHMA VISB BILL PYMNT”? What is the total cost to their customers and to their customer’s banks in lost time researching this meaningless phrase?
Verizon, please, have mercy on us your poor customers!
As it hasn’t changed yet, it looks like I’m going to have to start planning the 5 year anniversary of this post.
2021 and still going on
Thank you!!
I also want to thank you for this post. My bank, Huntington, had no idea what this was. what really confused me was that the same day this posted against my checking account, I had paid my own credit card and I knew I didn’t have another Visa.
Thanks again. Now I can call the bank and tell them what this charge was for.
AAC
Thanks for writing the blog about it. I was going crazy with that charge in my account.
THANKS FOR SHARING THIS WITH OTHERS. YOUR CONSIDERATION FOR OTHER PEOPLE IS EXCEPTIONAL IN TODAY’S WORLD. kUDOS.
First time I ever came across this weird account – I freaked out then luckily found your post! Thank you!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! HAHAHAHA YOU SAVED ME!
YUP YUP me too!!! I own a company that spends over $250K per month by a variety of signers so it is not even my actions that made the payment. Wasted 90 minutes of my time tracking it down until I came across your blog.
THANKS!!!!!
Hi—This was a case of great sleuthing driven by institutional lunacy.
I’m on a different tack as on my bank statements often appeared “ACH Verizon”; the kind of clarity you’d all been seeking. The joke was on me. After days on the phone to the two branches of Verizon (the wireless phone and the Fios TV, internet, etc.) I finally came to realize my bank had been HACKED. This was not either of the Verizons but instead seemingly an unauthorized withdrawal that has gone on for years at roughly $3 a pop and say once every two months.
Has another reader here had this happen? Here’s a set of posts on Verizon’s site to suggest it ain’t just me.
https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/1411801#1411801
I’m hoping ‘the crowd’ can help shed light on the size of the problem.
RLW
OMG, I went back in for with my bank’s claims department they gave me the money back then took it again and still could not freaking tell me who this was! Thank you so much now I know it was ME smh!
Well, thank you Sir !
Not only did this clear up my issue, but I got a good laugh out of this. Thank you!
Thank you very much! I was questioning my brain functioning.
3 years after your post, you curtailed my frustration immediately. THANK YOU for your post. It was the first thing that came up when i googled. I just wanted to say thank you, Apparently Verizon still hasn’t changed the way they list this in our accounts..
Thank you very much. Not at all happy with Verizon
GREAT JOB POSTING THIS!! We do accounting for several companies and have seen this charge come up a few times and almost wrote it off to a credit card expense until I Googled it! thanks again for the PSA!
Thank you for writing this. I hate to admit that I am entering banking information for our small business taxes and found this charge 4 times at the beginning of the year the no more until December and I was so confused
Thanks hoss. I did the same thing this morning when I saw that charge. I put in the amount and the entire entry and didnt get a match so I got the fraud/dispute number for BOA and was gonna call them. As a last ditch effort I put the “ACHMA VISB” words in a Yahoo search and this helpful blog put my mind at ease.
Maybe we should dispute the payment with the bank and eventually Verizon will get a clue that no one knows what that means!
This is crazy as hell. Had I not googled this I would have not known what this charge was. They deserve a nasty email confusing loyal customers, Its like they don’t want you to know its who is billing you. Verizon is not smart at all. SMH.
Thank you! This cleared up my confusion. I don’t see Verizon in that anywhere either. Weird!
DITTO to all above. I googled this as a last resort. I’ve been paying the Verizon bill for years, but had never seen this before. I was scared too. We should all send nasty emails to them. Ridiculus!!
I like you freaked out when I say that deduction in my checking account,VZW would have made more sense
Thank you very much for writing this. I was about to call a client and tell them they got robbed! I will also be contacting Verizon because today is 5/20/2016 and this crap is still happening. RIDICULOUS! They are going to hear it from me.
thank you! I almost called this in as not authorized. come on verizon!
THANK YOU!
Thank you!! I had no idea what that code meant and lucky you posted this!!
Thank You! I had the same problem. You are first on Google. Thanks for taking the time to do it.
Thank you so much. On a business account and was freaking out that I had no idea who this was….Will be noted. Thanks again!
thank you for this! we are a corporation and could not figure out the transaction for the love of god.
Thanks same thing as u get older I am 75 u see these thing and just about ready to call bank thanks abunch
Are you kidding me?? I was about to have a heart attack and your blog saved me!!! For such a big company they sure used their small brain when coming up with a description for the transaction. You saved my day !!!
Thanks!!!
Well, I’ve done my part to make the world a better place. This blog post is the top two results for “ACHMA VISB BILL PYMNT” and another 7 of the 21 results are sites that are scraping this useful public service announcement. The first time in my life I make to the top of google, I gotta figure out how to monetize my fame! 🙂
Thanks to all of the responses that let me know that I’m not the only one out there having a heart attack over this malicious looking charge.
would Verizon learn their lesson if we all requested a chargeback for these funds? chargebacks are also an accounting headache and it is usually a $20 fee per chargeback for the Company charging the card. if we all did this, Verizon might quickly change the digits/letters that show up on our credit card bills
Thank you! I was having a mild panic attack as well until I saw this! Saved me a lot of headache!
Thanks…I also had no idea!
Thank you Mister3.com!! I too am reconciling a bank statement for a client
and came across this Achma Visb on the Bank of America statement. I thought
it might be ACH Ma Vis B, meaning an ACH transfer to a Massachusetts firm.
You saved me a lot of time researching this. The client is out of town.
Thank you! This saved me lots of time.
I did the exact same thing!! Thanks for clarifying before calling my bank tomorrow!
Wow. I’m famous (well, kind of). Now, this post (or copies of this post) is 7 of the 17 results that Google returns when you search on “ACHMA VISB BILL PYMNT” (with the quotes).
Yes! Famously helpful. Yours was the #1 search result when I googled the acronym. Thank!
I’m going to add another THANK YOU!! to the pile. 🙂 Very helpful information.
Thank you. You just saved me a lot of trouble by sharing this information as I am reconciling a statement for a client for an account about which I do not have first hand knowledge but I do know they use Verizon.
THANK YOU!
same thing happened to me … Verizon is getting so big they just don’t care enough for common courtesies such as identifying themselves when they debit your Account
Thank you sir, this was very helpful, and made my day/job easier
Thank you for the information very usefull
Thank you. This was useful.
I feel your pain. I had the same thing happen and decided to copy the string of random letters and paste into google. Hence, I came across your blog, which cleared things up rather quickly. I was starting to suspect the worst but felt better after seeing your comments.
Thanks
Thank you.. I was looking at my bank statement going.. what in the crap is this.. Very Useful Information
Thank you very much , just see onto my statement that $ 4,326 was paid to that company