What happens when my credit card number changes
Recently, I got a new credit card from Citicard with a new number. Consequently, any regular payments set up on my credit card were denied, because the old number no longer works. How has this affected me?
Well, it was easy to put the new number into Amazon.com, so I can still buy books with one click and find them on my doorstep two days later. My Rdio account was suspended for a few days, but it comes out of Amazon payments, so I fixed that.
The worst? I donate to three places: a local ministry, an international ministry and a church. All through different non-profit Christian organizations. All three were about as seamless as a seam ripper (not a real analogy, but …).
The first organization emailed the individual at the receiving end of my donation because, for some reason, the organization that has my credit card didn’t have a phone number OR email address for me. I could sign into their website … but not re-enter a new credit card number. I had to personally call the organization’s employee and read my number to her over the phone (after a bit of phone tag). Hassle.
The second organization never contacted me. Luckily, I keep in contact with the individuals on the receiving end of this scenario, who mentioned in passing that my donation hadn’t gone through. It’s difficult enough to fundraise; most people in ministry should not be responsible for chasing banking details halfway across the world. Additionally, once I did fix the credit card number, there was no option to reprocess the payment that failed, which matters little to me but potentially throws of someone’s carefully planned budget, needlessly.
The third organization did nothing. It just quit auto-emailing “thank yous.” When I signed in to my account, I couldn’t change my credit card number. I could only cancel the payment and create a new payment.
Some of this may not seem like a big deal. I admit much of my frustration is because I work with user experience in my job. With all the care we put into making an experience carry little hurdles for someone downloading a *free* iPhone app, you would think that we could make donating to good causes easy.
The path of least resistance should be the one leading to a fulfilled donation to a good cause. Also, there should be a streamlined process. Why are all major non-profit organizations using different technology to process payments? Why don’t they all use PayPal? Is the fee too high?
This is a HUGE opportunity for a company to create something like PayPal, but specifically for non-profit organizations. Someone like me could log in and manage my charitable giving in one place. Each organization could customize their settings to send out additional campaigns, thank you letters, and such. It would be a communication platform on top of a donation platform. And, it could either be a vertical inside of PayPal, Dwolla or Square, or, it could be a startup on its own.
Make this for me.
And don’t get me started on how difficult it was for me to cancel a $30/month donation to World Vision after about six years of giving.