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Churches go high-tech with
automatic funds transfer

(Re-printed from the Reno Gazette Journal with permission)

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

You pay your heat, phone and gym membership electronically. Now you can settle your debt to God with an automatic funds transfer, too.

In an effort to enhance donations to the offering plate, hundreds of churches are taking Sunday morning donations automatically out of congregants' bank accounts. "We call it divine accounting,' says Leslee Nestingen, manager of fraternal communications for the Lutheran Brotherhood. that has signed up more than 600 Lutheran churches for automatic funds transfer services. Catholic, Presbyterian and non denominational churches are experimenting as well.

Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Sparks is considering using the system, said Scott Minky, pastor. The biggest factor in favor of the service is cash flow. "When people go on vacation, they don't think about giving their donations before they leave," he said.

The convenience, however, creates both social and theological dilemmas.

This offering is "at the heart of every Christian worship service," said Terry Parsons, stewardship officer for the Episcopal Church. In a cash less church, "what vehicle do you use to represent peoples gifts?"

Well, stickers, tokens, and index cards. The Lutheran Brotherhood uses turquoise stickers, which church members affix to envelopes to indicate they already have given. The Rev. Bill Bixby of trinity Lutheran Church in Lansdale, Pa., calls these "placebo envelopes."

Other churches use metal tokens or colored cards, decorated with preying hands or mourning doves, that say, "We gave electronically."

Dennis and Susan Packard, members of Bixby's church, like the funds transfer program. But they are grateful for the envelopes. If you don't put something in the plate, "you ma be frowned on, " says Dennis Packard. "We avoid that embarrassment."

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Electronic rental-payment
technology comes to tenants

By Terry Feinberg

Special to the Mercury News

SEVERAL new programs may make it easier for paying rent and reducing the hassle of collection for housing providers.

Electronic Funds Corp. of Carson City, Nev., is providing technology for electronic transfer of funds to enable landlords and property management firms to offer their tenants an automatic payment program. Instead of writing, mailing and wondering if their monthly rent check will arrive on time, tenants can fill out a form once, and the rent payment will automatically be transferred each month from their bank account to the owner's account.

Transactions can only be for a pre-authorized amount, on specified dates. Each month, the payments are processed by the property on software provided by Electronic Funds Corp. and are tracked by the Automated Clearing House (ACH) division of the Federal Reserve Bank. The entire process is governed by the Funds Transfer Act of 1978.

Because of software automation and security encryption, the process could be safer than a written check.

For property owners, in two or three minutes, hundreds of rent payments can be processed, with the funds automatically deposited into the owner's account This will reduce the need for late notices and will dramatically reduce the need for collection efforts.

This story goes on to describe two other unrelated topics. If you have further interest in what they might be, you may contact us by e-mail info@achnetwork.com and we will be happy to forward the entire story to you.

Terry Feinberg is chief executive officer of the Tri-County Apartment Association in Santa Clara County, California.

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