Brother, can you spare some credit?
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
No longer can you awkwardly mumble “Sorry, no change,” and do the fake pocket fumble when you walk by a Salvation Army Santa. The organization is now street-testing kettles that accept debit and credit cards.
Last year Salvation Army tested the credit machines in two cities, Dallas and Colorado Springs. This year the plastic kettles will be tested in 30 cities. In Colorado Springs, fundraising last year went up $64,000 from the year before, an 11 percent increase. About $5,000 of the increase was from donors using credit or debit cards at the kettles.
The kettles that take credit don’t look any different. But next to the metal red kettles are wireless card readers that resemble do-it-yourself readers at gas stations. The machines print two receipts, one for the donor and one to drop in the kettle. Salvation Army pays credit-processing fees same as any retailer.
I suppose it was only a matter of time. After all, even taxis take (and like!) plastic these days.
Would you be more likely to donate via debit or credit than pocket change? Or is it only a matter of time before we start hearing, “Sorry, no Visa”?
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