Accepting Credit Cards at Church
Credit card processing at Churches has emerged as a great way for churches to increase funds. Churches are following the leads of businesses who almost without exception accept credit cards as an efficient way to increase sales. And while technically a church may be a non-profit organization, it still has a specific purpose just as a business does. It needs to increase funds to accomplish that purpose. Church credit card processing increases the church's ability to generate funds.
In the society of today it's common for people to have multiple credit cards in their wallets, many tend to carry little cash. And so if when during the presentation of tithes and offerings, people don't have cash in their pockets, the church won't get any funds. To combat this and make it easier for members to donate funds, church credit card processing has increased.
Processing credit cards at church can help churches raise funds in many ways. To start off, the church can give its members the opportunity to make their contributions through the use of their credit cards. That makes it convenient for those members who don't carry much cash and commonly find themselves low on cash when the tithing plate comes around. It also benefits the church because the more tithing and donations received through church credit card processing, the better the church is able to budget. It knows in advance how much it has coming in each week, month, or year.
Church credit card processing sometimes does not work exactly as credit card processing in stores but, it still requires something similar to a merchant account. Instead of actually swiping your card physically through a terminal, what generally happens is that you'll fill out a form at church or online providing all of your credit card billing details, the amount you want to give to the church, and the frequency of the donations. This is called "Automatic Tithing". Some like to give a smaller amount each week while some prefer to donate a larger lump sum annually.
The church credit card processing system will now take the member information and put it into an automated system. Now at the specified time interval, the members credit or debit card will be billed automatically and the funds will be disbursed immediately to the church's bank account. Processing credit cards at church has made it really convenient and easy for both the church and the church member when it comes to donating.It also makes it very easy to do church fundraising by accepting credit card gifts and donations at the fundraiser.
The next process in church credit card processing is to be able to pay tithing via the church's website. You would go to the church's website and click on a link to a webpage where you could provide your credit card billing information and your tithing would be processed immediately.
This article was written by Todd Nelson, Marketing Director for Capital Merchant Solutions, Inc (HolyProcessing.com). CMS has been in the merchant account business for nearly 10 years, and offers free merchant accounts to both online and retail businesses. CMS also offers a unique program called "Automatic Tithing", which allows Churches to allow their members to automatically donate using their credit card or debit card. This article may be republished as long as absolutely no changes are made, and the resource box is included. Copyright 2007 - Capital merchant Solutions, Inc. - All rights reserved.
Published June 22nd, 2007