Bank transfer donations
Bank transfer donations are a cheaper option for your donors to give. Donors can give through a bank transfer by adding their bank as a payment method. As they process, the donations are to the Giving dashboard.
Important
Bank transfer donations are not available for Canada or New Zealand.
Two types of verification
Any time a bank account is added as a payment method, its ownership must be verified before it can be used for donations. Verification confirms that the donor has access to the connected bank account, they've given permission to withdraw money, and they've connected the correct account.
There are two types of bank verification available:
Instant verification: Bank accounts are verified using the donor's login credentials for their bank's website. Most banks support instant verification, and there's no waiting time.
Manual (micro-deposit) verification: For banks that don't support instant verification, manual verification will verify the account using a $0.01 micro-deposit. This process typically takes 2-3 days, as donors must verify their account by entering the SM-code attached to the micro-deposit they received.
If a donor receives an error while verifying a savings account, they may need to add a checking account instead.
Important
For Australian customers, BECS Direct Debit transactions have a default limit of AUD 1,500 per transaction and AUD 4,500 per account per week. To request higher limits, contact the Planning Center support team.
Help US donors manually verify bank accounts
After a donor adds a bank account using manual micro-deposit verification, they will see the account added to their saved payment methods. The account will have an Unverified status beside it and cannot be used for donations until it's verified.
Administrators can't initiate a bank verification or complete the verification process, but they can view the verification status on a donor's profile. There are two possible verification statuses:
Verified: The bank account has been verified, and the donor can use this as a payment method.
Waiting for donor: The donor must complete the verification on Church Center.
Once the manual verification process is initiated, donors have ten days to enter the SM-code they received. If the verification process is not completed within this time frame, donors must delete the bank account and start the process again.
Timeline of a donation
Bank donations typically take four business days to process, from the time they are initiated to when they are deposited into your church's bank account.
The bank donation has been made, securing a Received Date for the donation. Bank donations are initiated by the donor or by a recurring donation.
The bank donation is marked In Transit while the donor's bank completes the charge. Bank donations take 2-4 business days to post as successful donations. Some banks add 2-3 business days if it's the first time the donor has initiated a bank donation through Giving.
From here, the bank donation will either succeed or fail.
If the donation succeeds, the In Transit status is removed.
If the donation fails, the donor is notified via email, and the donation is marked as failed in the donor's account history.
Failed bank donations will incur a $4.00 fee charged to your organization. The fee will appear under Non-Giving income in your payout reports.
The donation is deposited into your church's bank. Payouts are on a rolling two-day deposit schedule, so a bank donation will remain in your account balance for another day or two before it's queued for a payout to your bank. It will take an additional 3-5 business days for the payout to be processed and reach your church's bank account.
Important
Bank donations are marked with an Awaiting transit stamp when initiated and start processing after 120 minutes. If a donor needs to stop a bank donation within that timeframe, an administrator can cancel the donation before it's processed.