EXHIBIT 99.1



          ECHO
Electronic Clearing House, Inc.,      FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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     ELECTRONIC CLEARING HOUSE (ECHO) APPOINTS RICHARD FIELD AS BOARD MEMBER



CAMARILLO,  CALIF.,  JULY  14,  2004  - Electronic Clearing House, Inc. (NASDAQ:
ECHO),  a  leading  provider  of  electronic  payment and transaction processing
services,  today announced that Richard Field has been appointed a member of the
Board  of  Directors.

Mr.  Field  brings  to  ECHO  more  than 35 years of experience in the financial
services industry as an executive for The Bank of New York, Chase and Citigroup.
In  1997,  Mr.  Field  retired  from The Bank of New York ("BONY"), where he had
created  a centralized marketing division and worked his way up over 19 years to
Executive  Vice  President  in  charge  of  Retail Banking, subsequently joining
BONY's  Management  Committee  as  Senior  Executive Vice President.  During his
tenure  at  BONY,  the  Bank grew from a mid-sized regional player to one of the
nation's  premier  performers in terms of earnings growth, market capitalization
and  expense  efficiency.  Under  Mr.  Field's  direction, BONY's branch network
expanded  to  become  the  largest  in  suburban  New  York.

Since  retiring, Mr. Field was a founding director of LendingTree, an innovative
and  successful  lending and realty services exchange, which allows consumers to
receive  competitive  loan  offers over the Internet.  In addition, in 2002, Mr.
Field  joined the boards of Providian Financial Corporation and HSPC, the latter
of  which  was  sold  to  General  Electric  in  January  of  2004.

Joel  M.  Barry, Chairman and CEO of Electronic Clearing House, Inc., commented,
"We  are  extremely  happy that Dick has agreed to join our Board.  While at The
Bank  of New York, Dick engineered the growth of its formerly modest credit card
subsidiary  into  one  of  the  top ten issuers in the U.S. and was subsequently
elected  to  MasterCard's Executive Committee and Chairman of its U.S. board. We
believe  he  will  be  of  immense  value in our effort to grow and increase the
profitability  of  our  credit  card  and  check  processing  businesses."

Mr.  Field  said,  "This  is  an  exciting  time for ECHO as it builds its check
services  business.  ECHO  has  developed a portfolio of innovative products and
technology,  which  provide a great value proposition to merchants and banks.  I
look  forward  to  contributing  to  the  development of the Company's marketing
strategy  to  help  build  ECHO into a leading check and credit card processor."



ABOUT ELECTRONIC CLEARING HOUSE, INC. (ECHO)

Electronic  Clearing  House,  Inc.  provides  a complete solution to the payment
processing  needs  of merchants, banks and collection agencies.  ECHO's services
include  debit  and credit card processing, check guarantee, check verification,
check  conversion,  check  re-presentment,  and  check  collection.

For more information about ECHO, please visit www.echo-inc.com.
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SAFE  HARBOR  STATEMENT  UNDER  THE  PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF
1995:  Any  statements  set  forth  above  that  are  not  historical  facts are
forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual  results  to  differ  materially  from  those  in  the  forward-looking
statements.  Examples  of  forward-looking  statements  included  in  this press
release  include  the potential for growth and increased profitability of ECHO's
credit  card and check processing businesses.  Potential risks and uncertainties
that  may cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited
to,  such  factors  as  fluctuations  in  demand  for the Company's products and
services,  the  introduction of new products and services, the Company's ability
to  maintain  customer  and  strategic  business  relationships,  technological
advancements, impact of competitive products and services and pricing, growth in
targeted markets, the adequacy of the Company's liquidity and financial strength
to  support  its growth, and other information detailed from time to time in the
Company's  filings  with  the  United States Securities and Exchange Commission.


  Media Contact:
  --------------
  Donna Rehman, Corporate Secretary         Crocker Coulson, Partner
  805-419-8533                              Coffin Communications Group
  Electronic Clearing House, Inc.,          818-789-0100
    Camarillo, Calif.                       E-MAIL: crocker.coulson@coffincg.com
  URL:http://www.echo-inc.com                       ----------------------------
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     E-MAIL: corp@ECHO-inc.com
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