Australia Church Catching Hell for Electronic Collection Plates with $10 Minimum

SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

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I assume this is really happening at this church, it would put me off to force a minimum contribution so high, and I wonder if there would still be an option for cash, that's the only way I would want to donate into a collection place during mass. Story here.

St. Mary’s Cathedral in Australia is taking heat for implementing a “tap and go” collection plate. Similar to what you would see at a McDonald’s, these devices allow patrons ― or in this case, parishoners ― to tap their chip-enabled credit cards and pay a certain amount.

The Roman Catholic cathedral in Sydney announced the moved on its Facebook page, but the outcry was so swift that the post was deleted soon after ― though, as always, someone took a screenshot.

“Multiple payments of $10 can be made by tapping your card once with several seconds in between each transaction,” St. Mary’s said in the post.

Multiple payments! The response was certainly not all negative, and seemed more focused on the minimum donation being set at $10.

“If you had made it [a] $2 minimum we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation,” said one Facebook user.
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This is new to me.

St Mary's Cathedral is just that, not exactly your average parish church. It is, like many cathedrals, a tourist attraction and as such they solicit donations for upkeep etc.

Usually that is done with a donation box but these days people carry less cash in the wallet so the tap and go method probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

Edit - I just followed the link. It really is about collection plates for services. Tacky, very tacky.

I donate to my church by a monthly payment direct from my bank account. That was my decision and I set it up.
This system is called Giving Direct and it is a reliable steady way to contribute, even when on vacation.
In my case I am usually out of the church with the children when the collection plate is passed around.
 
Yes I agree , absolutely Shame on them.... but with regard to minimum credit card transactions..here in the UK at least, I don't know about anywhere else, it's a common thing for merchants to set a minimum on debit transactions ..usually £5.00
 
Could I use it like I do my ATM card and make a withdrawal too if I needed it? I haven't heard of any churches around here having electronic collection plates
 
As someone who owned a business with a retail component, I'm going to dissent. Granted, I don't know what AU merchant processing fees are, but in the US they can be steep enough to seriously erode already slim profit margins, especially when customers use reward cards. As of 2010, US merchants can require up to a $10 minimum purchase for CC transactions. In the US a $2 would often net roughly $1 (sometimes less) after fees are paid.

I'd guess this church came up with $10 as the most likely CC transaction. Notice that although people are reading this as a $10 minimum, from what I can gather it's both the minimum AND the maximum for a tap and go. One size fits all. Want to give $20? Tap it twice. Want to give less? Use cash. Consider $10 the requested and recommended donation.

I've seen people swipe CCs for a package of gum in convenience stores. Trust me, the merchant is losing money on that transaction.
 
StarSong said:
It's not a minimum offering, it's a minimum to use a tap-n-go credit card. I'm sure they're more than happy to continue accepting cash donations.
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You are correct here, StarSong. However, it should have been predictable that this method would cause much resentment. This is especially the case given the findings of the Royal Commission into historic child abuse in institutions. The Catholic church, and others, are now liable for compensation to victims. Many people think that the churches need to take some punishment, including the sale of assets to cover the financial liabilities.
 
Warrigal said:
You are correct here, StarSong. However, it should have been predictable that this method would cause much resentment. This is especially the case given the findings of the Royal Commission into historic child abuse in institutions. The Catholic church, and others, are now liable for compensation to victims. Many people think that the churches need to take some punishment, including the sale of assets to cover the financial liabilities.
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No argument on any of those points.
 
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