ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER & FREEMASONRY (USING PAYPAL)

by W:.Tim Bryce, PM, MPS
timb001@phmainstreet.com
Palm Harbor, Florida, USA
"A Foot Soldier for Freemasonry"

"PayPal's service builds on the existing financial infrastructure of bank
accounts and credit cards and utilizes the world's most advanced proprietary
fraud prevention systems to create a safe, global, real-time payment solution."
- PayPal

Wouldn't it be nice to collect the annual dues for your Lodge electronically, such
as through your Lodge's web page? Actually, it's not as difficult as you might
think. To do it yourself, you require a Shopping Cart (to select items to pay for),
a "Gateway" to verify financial transactions, a secure server to process the transactions
(hack proof), and a Merchant Account to deposit funds into. This may be too technically
challenging for the average person or Lodge to implement. Fortunately, there is a
simpler way to accomplish all of this, namely PayPal.
https://www.paypal.com/

PayPal was founded in the late 1990's as a secure system allowing the electronic
transfer of payments. This became the primary on-line payment service for Internet
auction giant eBay who subsequently purchased the company outright. Today there are
millions of PayPal customers in countries all over the world. Why? Because PayPal
brings to the table an easy to use way to process transactions securely.

True, larger companies will use their own Shopping Carts, Gateways, etc. for
their electronic purchases, but there a lot of small to medium sized businesses
that use PayPal instead. In terms of Freemasonry, PayPal represents a convenient
means to:

1. Collect Annual Dues.
2. Collect donations for charity.
3. Purchase Masonic paraphernalia - auto decals, hats, books, etc.

PayPal is able to securely process transactions for a variety of credit
cards, such as Master Card, Visa, American Express, and Discover. It is free for the
buyer to use, but there is a nominal fee charged to the seller (which is one way
PayPal makes its money). There are no setup or monthly fees to use PayPal, but
for each transaction PayPal takes 2.9% + $0.30 USD. For example, for a $100 charge,
PayPal takes $3.20 ($2.90 + $.30) leaving you with $96.80. Note: There are
different rates for higher volumes or for International transactions, but it is
unlikely a Masonic Lodge would use this. To assure you are getting your payment
in full (without the PayPal deduction) you should adjust your fee to include a
nominal "handling charge" which most people understand and accept. For example,
for a $100 charge, add a $3.30 "handling charge" for a total of $103.30 (thereby
PayPal gets $3.30 and you get your $100).

Implementing PayPal on your web page requires someone familiar with the HTML
tag language (which is becoming common these days). I have reviewed the PayPal
technical documentation and found it easy to understand and use with plenty
of examples. For more information, see PayPal's...

Technical Overview:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr...on-outside

Also see their, Frequently Asked Questions:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr...Qs-outside

Getting started is actually quite simple:

1. Sign up for a PayPal Business account on-line which is free and takes just a couple of minutes to perform.

2. Verify your information which includes your e-mail address and financial institution
(which can take up to 3-6 business days).

3. Setup your preferred payment solution which specifies how PayPal will pay you,
either by credit or debit card, or bank transfer.

For more information, see:

How to Get Started:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr...arted=true

After you have established your PayPal Business account and updated your
web page with the PayPal order form, you are ready to process transactions.
The beauty of this approach is that funds are transferred immediately into your
PayPal account and you are notified by e-mail of any activity. But understand this,
although the money is received by PayPal, you must go into your PayPal account
and release the funds into your bank account or credit/debit card. Otherwise,
it sits in your PayPal account where PayPal collects on the interest (which
represents another way they make their money). The PayPal account is easy to
manage and use. I've been using it myself for the last few years and
have never had a problem with it.

True, a lot of Masons still prefer making payments through the mail, but there
are a growing number of us who have purchased items over the Internet and enjoy
the convenience it represents. Probably most of you who are reading this Internet
based article have made an on-line transaction over the web. It saves everybody
a lot of time, it processes transactions fast and securely, and it is the wave
of the future. Check it out.

Keep the Faith!

NOTE: The opinions expressed in this essay are my own and do not necessarily represent
the views or opinions of any Grand Masonic jurisdiction or any other Masonic related body.
As with all of my Masonic articles herein, please feel free to reuse them in Masonic
publications or re-post them on Masonic web sites (except Florida).
When doing so, please add the following:

Article reprinted with permission of the author.

Please forward me a copy of the publication when it is produced.

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You can also "tune in" to Bro. Tim's audio podcasts at the "Lodgeroom International" (UK):

http://podcast.lodgeroominternational.com/

Also be sure to check out Tim's "Pet Peeve of the Week" (non-Masonic related) at:

http://www.phmainstreet.com/timbryce.htm

Copyright © 2007 by Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.

This the way forward for people with no time and trust the WWW. The problem I can see is our Lodge fees for Craft are $400 so I would have to pay $13.20 handling charge. I could just give the cash to the treasurer for free or pay my bank 50c for a cheque usage.

I make quite a few purchases online. Paypal is good too, that is who you go through to donate to this site.