Good Lord! Now even church collection plates are contactless
How NOTHING is sacred in the rush to go cashless (but gadget does still take notes and coins)
the Financial Ombudsman Service), warned of the imminent death of cash unless action was taken to protect it. Although she welcomes the increasing use of cards, direct debits and mobile phones to make payments, she believes cash needs to stay (see below).
On a positive front, the use of new contactless ‘collection plates’ has certainly helped boost donations to churches. According to fintech company SumUp, one of the suppliers of the new card readers, some churches have seen overall donations almost double as a result of embracing the new technology – in a matter of just months.
But the new machines are not without their drawbacks, with churches having to pay for the readers to be installed, incurring a transaction fee on any donation made (reducing the sum they ultimately receive), and then having to wait a while for the card collections to come back into their coffers.
For example, transaction fees can range between one and 2.95 per cent while a card reader can cost anything up to £250 to purchase.
The delay in the money coming back to the church, minus any fees, can range from two to 90 days. Apart from SumUp, providers include Goodbox, Payacharity, Swedish-owned iZettle and Square.
Most disadvantageous of all, the vast majority of the card readers are not yet sophisticated enough to enable users to indicate they are taxpayers, thereby qualifying their donation for Gift Aid which would boost the amount a church receives by 25 per cent.
At most churches (including St Mary Abbots), envelopes are left on the seats of pews for members of the congregation to put their cash donations inside. Provided they give their full name, address and date of donation, the church can claim Gift Aid on top.
Churches are also keen to get members to donate via standing order and Christian charity giving schemes such as Stewardship – both Gift Aid friendly. So, both are better financially for the churches than card readers.
Ama Ackah-Yensu is church treasurer at Methodist Central Hall Westminster, located within an order paper’s wave of the Houses of Parliament. She is currently looking at whether the church should introduce card readers similar to the ones St Mary Abbots and the nearby Westminster Cathedral have installed.
An accountant by profession, she says the decision to install a card reader is a no-brainer on financial grounds. At big events such as the church’s Christmas carol service that can draw in 2,000 people, she says the church loses out ‘significantly’ as a result of people turning up without any cash to give.
‘Most people want to give,’ she says, ‘but many don’t carry cash any more. All rather frustrating.’
The church, she adds, has to raise tens of thousands of pounds a year just to stand still – to pay staff as
well as carry out vital work in the community, helping the homeless, the impoverished, those with mental health issues and supporting parents who have lost children in early infancy or as a result of a miscarriage.
Yet Ackah-Yensu says there are also moral issues to consider. ‘I know nothing is free when it comes to banking, but I do worry about banks and other financial organisations profiteering from the near cashless society we have become. Especially when that money making is at the expense of organisations such as ours, whose overriding objective is to do good and support our local communities.’
Back at St Mary Abbots, I manage to track down head verger Simon Fitter, positively beaming as a result of a gift of some beautiful lilies from a passer-by. He declares the card readers (there are three of them in the church, one out of operation) a great success – generating £200 a week for the church.
‘A lot of tourists visit our church and have no cash on them,’ he says. ‘Before, they would walk out, having not made a donation. Now, they’re happy to wave their card in front of our readers and give us a little.’
Interestingly, the card reader’s default payment Monday through to Saturday is £3, with users able to press a button to increase their donation to a maximum £30. But on a Sunday, the church’s busiest day with six services and some 400 people turning up to pray and reflect, the minimum payment is ratcheted up to £10 (provider Goodbox does it remotely). As the book of Proverbs proclaims: ‘Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops.’
Before I leave, Simon shows me the church’s latest payment gadget yet to make its debut – a card reader set inside a collection plate, allowing the congregation to choose between a cash donation or one via contactless payment. ‘Good, isn’t it?’ he asks. It is rather, providing people the payment choice Ceeney is pressing for. Hallelujah.
Later on I get a call from Daniel Jones, chief generosity officer of Stewardship, a Christian charity that enables people to make regular donations to a charity giving account – and then direct the money to specific Christian causes. ‘Contactless payment is not the future,’ he says. ‘It’s just part of it, as is cash.’
Spot on Mr Generosity Officer. Cash is not king, but it remains an important cog in the turning of the economy’s wheels that must be preserved at any cost.