CTT's new online payment service to handle all online/offline donations
Howard Lake | 25 February 2004 | News
Charities Technology Trust (CTT) says that its new service CP Terminal will transform the way in which charities process credit and debit card donations
CP Terminal offers a new approach to online donation processing because it can also be used to handle offline payments. CTT believe this standardised solution will offer considerable savings to charities through improved efficiency.
The system on which it is based has been used in the commercial sector for over five years and currently processes over £4 billion of transactions each year.
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CP Terminal effectively turns any office PC with Internet access into a card payments terminal. Online and offline donations can be processed using the same system. The secure Web-based system lets authorised users process donations rapidly: “each transaction is authorised in real time, within a few seconds by your bank,” says CTT. This means that the money is credited straight into the charity’s bank. In effect, the system replaces the standard credit card terminal, sometimes referred to as a PDQ terminal.
CP Terminal also processes Gift Aid donations, says CTT, and produces automatic gift aid claim reports, which can be straight to the charity’s bank.
CTT believes that CP Terminal is suitable for charities of any size, and is particularly useful for those which submit manual credit and debit card vouchers as well as those who use credit card terminals.
Peter Sweatman, CEO of Charity Technology Trust, explained the charity’s development of the system in partnership with a major corporate: “we identified a need for a quick, low cost and secure system for charities to process their credit and debit card donations. We are delighted to have been able to secure this proven technology for use in the charity sector. CP TERMINAL will replace the Credit Card terminal and manual voucher processing, helping charities to save costs and improve their efficiency.”
CP Terminal is available in two forms. First, for charities that wish to use their ‘own bank’, there is a monthly access fee and a transaction fee. The charity is responsible for paying its bank charges.
Secondly, for charities who prefer CTT to host the system, there is a monthly cost and a transaction fee, which includes all bank charges.
One of the first charities to use CP Terminal is the Royal British Legion. WaterAid is also using it, focusing on promoting online direct debits as part of its annual appeal to the 24 million households that receive water bills.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.