Tithe/Giving and PayPal

[Cindi Hammons]

Has anyone considered or is actively allowing people to pay tithe or make donations via PayPal? It is getting to the point that I hardly ever write a check anymore and businesses are making it more and more difficult to do so. We are considering going completely check-less and using debit cards only. I think the PayPal fees would be much less expensive than becoming a credit card vendor.

What do you think?

[Belinda Y. Edwards]

Hi Cindi -

It is something that we have discussed but not to the point of actually checking out how to accomplish it.

One obstacle that comes to mind is something that i learned from my infant massage class. i could pay for it by paypal or by sending check. To make it easier for myself, i did everything by paypal. When i arrived to class, i was given a refund for registering early. The refund was not as great as what i had originally been told it would be, because i had paid through paypal. It was explained to me that paypal charges a fee for all transactions to the person and therefore my refund would reflect those charges.

i haven't checked that information out any further from what i was told. i accepted the information and went on my merry way.

i am not sure if this would make a difference or not in decisions - but thought it was interesting information.

[Cindi Hammons]

Yes, PayPal charges a small fee. But I still think the small fee would be less than starting a credit card vendor account which is a monthly charge.

I wonder if the charge of the small fee would be worth the potential of easier/more giving? Would it actually end up assisting/boosting giving at all?

Just some rambling thoughts.

[Belinda Y. Edwards]

Cindi, i think your questions reflect the culture of today.

i know for us, we have several who are new Christians. When i say new Christians, i am not just meaning new to the fold of Christ but also new to church culture. When i was young, we had several who attended church that we prayed for their salvation. They knew the church culture even if they weren't Christians. In this context, i refer to tithing as church culture - for to me it is adhering to the culture of the church until/unless you are a Christian. After you are a Christian, to me, it is following the teachings of Christ in discipleship. This means that we are having to teach tithing as a part of the principles of being Christ's disciple. Part of the teaching has been the need to tithe even while on vacation. That was a real mind blower to some. The reality that electricity, mortage, ect - continue even when you are not present was something to reconsider. Up until that point, they considered tithe like paying for a concert ticket. i pay when i attend - when i get something out of it.

The idea of paypal was discussed as a way to enable the ones who vacation often (and we have several who do this) to be able to easily practice their discipleship.


Like you - we have discussed but haven't moved beyond this point.

i am interested in this thread and what others may have to share regarding this subject. i would love to know if a church has done this and what their experience has been.

[Hans Deventer]

The idea of paypal was discussed as a way to enable the ones who vacation often (and we have several who do this) to be able to easily practice their discipleship.

I think most of our members have automatic monthly transfers. Vacations don't really change a lot in the income of the church.

[Belinda Y. Edwards]

I think most of our members have automatic monthly transfers. Vacations don't really change a lot in the income of the church.

Please, clarify.

Are you saying that most members in your church have signed a waiver with their bank for automatic monthly deposites into the church account?

[Hans Deventer]

Please, clarify.

Are you saying that most members in your church have signed a waiver with their bank for automatic monthly deposites into the church account?

Well, you don't have to sign that waiver anymore nowadays. So some may have, others have arranged for this in their computer banking program.

Of course some will still transfer money manually and some even still use cash, but less than 10% of our church's income is received through the offerings in church. To me, it is more like a ritual than anything else.

[Billy Cox]

Has anyone considered or is actively allowing people to pay tithe or make donations via PayPal? It is getting to the point that I hardly ever write a check anymore and businesses are making it more and more difficult to do so. We are considering going completely check-less and using debit cards only. I think the PayPal fees would be much less expensive than becoming a credit card vendor.

What do you think?

Paying a fee to process credit cards, PayPal, ACH (automatic withdrawal) only makes sense if the convenience factor increases giving by about 10% overall.

In my opinion, automatic withdrawal is easy to justify because people have to take action NOT to give. Maybe there are theological objections to this, but then I figure there were theological objections when churches started receiving offerings in cash instead of commodities.

If I were selling ACH services to a pastor, all I would have to say to close the sale is that people using ACH will tithe even when they do not attend a Sunday service.