Your church is a thriving and expanding institution that serves its members and the community in a variety of ways. You rely on the generosity of your members to sustain your current ministries as well as programs, grow them to best represent your members and achieve new parishioners. Your church may increase donations to assist best the activities that are important to them by using the correct payment processing as well as merchant services solutions. This article discusses the best merchant accounts for churches.
Payment processing, as well as merchant services, are both terms for the processing of financial transactions through your church’s online giving platform. When your church’s software solutions improve the efficiency of these operations, you improve the giving process for your members or your financial team.
Why are Merchant Accounts Important for Churches?
Merchant accounts are authorized banking services that your company can utilize to accept payments made via credit cards, debit cards, and other forms of electronic payment.
To be able to accept electronic payments, such as one-time gifts, automated recurring gifts, or other contributions like sales made through your church’s bookshop, merchant services are required. These payments can be made in a variety of ways. Your church will need to establish a merchant account in order to complete these transactions (a bank account that permits your church to receive electronic gifts).
Choosing a church online payment system that contains all of the required church merchant accounts is the simplest method to set up a merchant account. Your financial staff will only be required to deal with one system this way! This makes it simpler to keep track of important information and stay current with your bookkeeping.
Best Merchant Accounts for Churches
Payment Cloud
PaymentCloud is a merchant account service oriented in Woodland Hills, California, that focuses on serving ordinary to high-risk business types. The company’s goods and services are point-of-sale systems, mobile telephone swipers, a digital payment gateway, a virtual terminal, EMV-compatible devices, and merchant cash advances.
These features enable churches to accept money during off-site gatherings, ongoing fundraising online, or donations from members’ focus areas. Furthermore, PaymentCloud focuses on offering donor management as well as fundraising solutions to non-profit organizations. For these reasons, PaymentCloud is an excellent choice for churches.
All new merchants receive a particular account rep for the duration of their account. The company has gotten no lousy feedback on consumer courts, and its price is tailored to each merchant’s business type and processing history. PaymentCloud does not have a BBB profile now.
Host Merchant Services
Host Merchant Services is a merchant account service situated in Newark, Delaware, ideal for churches and non-profits. Among the company’s goods and services are point-of-sale systems, digital marketing tools, a digital payment gateway, virtual terminals, recurrent billing, and mobile processing of credit cards.
Host Merchant Services specializes in e-commerce firms and offers free websites and email addresses to non-profit groups such as churches interested in online fundraising. Host Merchant Services has received positive comments in open forums, with most reviews praising the company’s customer service.
Host merchants receive interchange-plus pricing with no early termination fees, ensuring consumers have the most open pricing model and can quit service without consequence. The BBB rates the Host as “A+.”
CDG Commerce
CDG Commerce is a business account service headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia. The company was founded in 1998 and has been independently owned and operated. It allows churches to make payments online, over the phone, or in person.
CDG Commerce provides its customers with a virtual terminal in addition to an online payment gateway that includes subscriptions, payment tokenization, on-site payment alternatives, third-party interoperability, ACH processing, and traditional in addition to mobile POS equipment.
CDG Commerce offers all non-profit organizations stable, reasonable prices and a month-to-month contract with no fees for early termination. The organization has generally gotten positive feedback in over two decades of operation. CDG Commerce received an “A+” rating in our review, and the BBB gave the company an “A+” rating.
Shopify
Shopify is known primarily as an e-commerce solution for retailers. It provides capabilities like inventory synchronization with an online store, emailed invoices, tax calculations, rudimentary email campaigns, and in-store refunds. These online payment alternatives and the Shopify brand’s familiarity are ideal for churchgoers who will feel at ease when using the service.
The Shopify payment platform can also be used with a Shopify web retailer, which offers several customization options. Shopify POS is ideal for churches that want to take money on-site using their devices as well as via online billing. Shopify has an “A+” rating from the Better Business Bureau.
Why is Payment Processing for Churches Essential?
Payment processing enables your church to collect cash, check, credit, or debit card contributions from members and other supporters and help steer those contributions to the correct campus, department, or program. Payment processing enables online giving and facilitates conventional giving, saving your team time.
The payment processor, as well as online giving tools at your church, are linked, but they are not the same system. Your church will utilize your online offering tools to establish a form or webpage on your site where members may make contributions that your payment gateway will receive.
To encourage generosity, your church wishes to provide its people with as many giving alternatives as possible. To encourage donations by making it easy, you’ll need an online payment system that can handle credit cards, cheques, and cash.
Conclusion
Churches have a specific role to play in society. And for that, they require money and support. Unlike usual businesses, types that sell a product or service against payment, churches require a different payment collection option. A merchant service provider that can effectively take care of donations and payments from the followers. Our list gives you the best merchant accounts that can help your church receive payment easily and efficiently.
