Pastor Gary or anyone else who knows

[Full Quiver]

What is the procedure for putting a POS, Point of Sale machine, in your church.? I never thought I'd even consider it, but I do have at least one who seldomly carries cash and is interested in me putting one in the church. I need help!

[AndyG]

You can get a merchant account (what you have to have in order to process credit cards) via your bank usually. They can sometimes require fees, etc.

The real expense can be the equipment itself, IF you don't shop around.

You can also get one online through a service like ProPay, among others, and enter the information manually. You'd just need to get a written slip with the amount to be charged, the card number and expiration, the Special ID number( an extra 3 or 4 digit number on the card), Name, address (including zip) and signature. Some will tell you the adress part is not a requirement, but some services demand it for manual entry and will either not process it or charge you extra service fees.

PayPal will also work but it requires the other person to go online to donate if I remember correctly. The same goes for Amazon's donate button.

Just remember, all of these services, even the "free" ones have fees and this reduces the actual amount of the gift by as little as a few dollars to as much 15% depending on the service. I would suggest that this be considered as well.

[Billy n NC]

NC-Preacher .. I just set up my Credit Card Account in the past month.
I am using PayPal.. They charge. 2.9 % and 50 cents per transaction..
But it works very well. Not very dificult to setup..

But as Andy said.. requires the person wishing to use credit card to do so online..

Billy n NC

[dolfan]

PLEASE carefully weigh the hidden costs of a POS device. Most of the time the equipment vendor and the service vendor are different companies, although both may be sold to you by a salesperson who can set you up altogether. Most of the devices come in a lease/purchase plan that you are bound to pay even if you discontinue the service. I have represented no less than 4 small businesses who discovered their monthly processing fees were greater than they expected at the outset and who cancelled their service --- thinking they were also canceling the whole deal and then getting stuck with the lease payment on a device they weren't even using.