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The Financial Committee invites you to consider participating in a program designed to simplify monetary giving in our congregation, using your bank’s Bill Pay or Online Banking service.
You may already be using Bill Pay and Online Banking to pay your mortgage, car payment, or insurance premium. You can send donations to ECC in the same way. When members give their offerings regularly and consistently, it helps the church plan its ministry funding. And it benefits you, too, because you don’t need to worry about writing 52 weekly checks each year. And when travel, illness, or other circumstances prevent you from attending services, this program allows your offerings to continue on an uninterrupted basis.
Many members already use Automatic Bill Pay with their banks to set up regular giving to ECC. This gives them the convenience of not needing to remember their checkbook each week, and it provides the church ease in financial planning. Donors can change or discontinue their payment schedule at any point.
Most banks offer online banking services, including Goodfield State Bank, Eureka Community Bank, and Heartland Bank & Trust Company. Check with your bank to see if there are any expenses that may be incurred by using Bill Pay and Online Banking.
How to access Online Banking will vary depending on your bank. If you have not used Online Banking before, you may need to contact your bank to set the system up initially.
Steps you may need to follow:
- Set up an online account with your bank.
- Once you have logged into your Bill Pay account, set up a new payee: Eureka Christian Church, 302 South Main Street, Eureka, IL 61530.
- You can send a one-time donation to the church. You should use the Memo field to specify whether it’s a regular offering or a special donation, such as Capital Campaign, Week of Compassion or Snackpac.
- You can also set up a recurring payment to ECC, in whatever interval you choose (weekly, twice a month, monthly, etc.)
- Be sure to include any payment breakdown in the memo portion, and arrange to send a memo each time. You can specify how much of the payment goes to your stewardship pledge and what portion goes to the capital campaign or special offerings. (Please make sure the amounts add up to the total payment amount.)
- Once you have established the payment arrangement, the bank will mail a payment to the church at the designated intervals. Check with your bank to see how you will receive confirmation of the payments.
The benefits of establishing recurring payments include your peace of mind in fulfilling your commitments, and the stability of receiving offerings at regular rates throughout the year. This enables the church to better plan for funding our congregation’s ministries.
AUTOMATIC FUNDS TRANSFER (AFT)
Because ECC banks with with Heartland Bank and Trust Company, there is another option to customers of Heartland Bank: AFT — Automatic Funds Transfer.
In order to use AFT, a donor must bank at any Heartland Bank and Trust Company. To use this feature, the donor must transfer the same amount, at the same time, on the same day of the month. To use AFT, contact any Heartland Bank and Trust Company.
