Paying Railway a Donation or Membership

I agree

I pointed out to a railway charity lately that although they accepted paypal, their different webpages all had different calls to action with some printing pdfs and posting, not showing their online payments. I had an acknowledgement and thank you. Nevertheless some pages still just have the download a pdf, I notice.

A railway I'm associated with has around 18 groups with websites, around half are of 'print the form' variety. Two you can pay electronically only by text, another two only by BACS. The remainder of the online ones use paypal or similar.

Patrick

 

I have paid my membership to my off shore Island by standing order for at least 20 years, never had any kind of problem.

 

I am treasurer to a smallish local charity relating to historic churches. Membership options are cheque or standing order. Most members use the standing order option - but even then it can take a bit of detective work to identify the individuals concerned - and to tie up Gift Aid Declarations.

As a volunteer treasurer I am very much in favour of keeping everything as simple as possible.

 

The GWS at Didcot issue a hard copy form for renewals, but it includes all possible options- those using online banking are invited to scan the form and email it back to confirm what their bank transfer represents (and at the same time provide the necessary signature to confirm Gift Aid status). People who renew by paper means have to provide an SAE for return of membership cards, while those who use the online facility do not.

This seems to me to be the sort of solution that pleases everybody, while providing a small but significant incentive to switch to online payment.

 

The issue, which my church is having to consider the pros and cons of, is that these payment agents take a percentage. That is a cost of doing business that we haven’t previously had to bear, and is a cost we wouldn’t bear with cash or cheque.

As it sticks in the craw to see money intended for us go to the intermediary, judging when not doing that is worse than doing it is tricky. From the work I do each month with the bank statements, I’m very well aware that BACS puts great pressure on the organisation to have admin absolutely tip top; not all voluntary organisations have the luxury of sufficient resource.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Another annoying case in point. There's been calls to help the WHHR Baldwin fund complete 590's restoration. Full of good intentions I go to the site to find you have to download, print, and mail a form, even for credit card donations. Result: no donation from me.....

 

I`m a great fan of this Donate buttom that you can find in some occasions. It lets you pay online whit your credit card , through paypal.com. You can easily choose amount and also if you want it to be a mountly payment. This is a very easy and safe way to donate ,especially for us overseas, and I hope several other heritage railways, restoration projects and other that needs donations, payments of membership ,etc. will follow the same formula. It`s still so many projects that need support but then you met the standard phrase "please enclouse a cheque paypable to".....
Sorry, to send money with check will never be a alternative for me.

kind regards
Knut