The Online Giving Fee Trap! Watch out for unnecessary fees when setting up online giving!
There are a lot of companies out there that allow your
church or organization to get set up with online giving including online,
mobile, and kiosk. But there are a lot of unnecessary fees! Read this article
to be aware of unnecessary fees and how you can avoid them.
Set Up Costs
You should never, and I mean never, pay for set up costs.
Especially if those set up costs are for each avenue of giving. For example,
some companies have you pay for your online donation avenue and then if you
want mobile you have to pay an mobile setup cost on top of that. These costs can be completely
avoided and are just an extra cost to your church or organization. Don't pay them just move on to the next company that doesn't require that unnecessary fee.
Service Charges
You should never pay a service charge on top of your
transaction fees. This is an unnecessary cost to your church. A service charge
can be a set dollar amount or it can be a percentage of your donations but you shouldn't have to pay either
. Like in the set up costs if there is a service charge in addition to your transaction costs just move on to the next company that doesn't charge you a service charge.
Transaction Costs
Yes, this is a real fee and no matter where you go you need
to pay this. However, be on the lookout for excessive transaction costs.
Anything over 3% is a high transaction cost for non-profits and churches.
Anything over 5% is high for individuals. If you want to save money look for a
company that has a transaction cost split where they charge a different fee for
ACH then they do Credit Card. ACH is a cheaper method of accepting donations
and you can greatly reduce your transaction costs by asking your donors, or even
having the ability for your donors to choose, ACH payment methods.
Monthly or Yearly Costs
This is a little bit of a muddy water cost. A lot of places
do charge a monthly cost but there a few that don't. (If the company doesn't charge a monthly cost that mean they are covering that cost for you.) If the transaction rate is the same between two
companies and one has a monthly cost then of course go with the one without the
monthly cost. However, if they seem comparable in that the transaction rates
are significantly lower and the monthly cost is very low then you might have to
do some math to see which would be cheaper for your church.
You can find our rates here to compare them with other companies
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ReplyDeletethanks for sharing this article. It's important to be aware of the hidden fees that can come with online giving. I've heard of some churches that have been charged monthly fees, transaction fees, and even setup fees. It's definitely worth shopping around and comparing different providers to find the one that offers the best value.
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