1. Online Banking
A note from the treasurer about making and receiving payments:
There are three ways to make payments: online banking, PayPal, and by credit card.
1. Online Banking
You can send or receive money from CAMTA electronically from most major banks. Whether you want to pay for an event, or request a reimbursement, you can do so using CAMTA’s payment e-mail address.
The way that online banking works (including QuickPay) have changed, and will probably continue to change. If you tried online banking with CAMTA before, but couldn’t get it to work, and more than a year has gone by, you might give it another go. Things have gotten smoother and easier. Here’s the latest:
In order to use online banking, you must start with your own bank. Your bank must offer online banking. Many banks offer it for free. Regardless, there are always some steps you have to complete in order to set up online banking. I can’t help you with this. If you’re not sure how to do it, you need to contact someone at your bank.
To send money, you initiate the transaction from your own bank—from your own online account. Use CAMTA’s payment e-mail address as the recipient:
NOTE: Do NOT use my personal e-mail address! Do not use anyone’s personal address! Use CAMTA’s payment address! (Additional note: do not use this payment e-mail for correspondence of any sort; your message will likely not be read and you will not receive a reply.)
The process is fully automatic. Once you complete the transaction, within seconds, I’ll get a receipt telling me that your money’s been transferred.
As you’re preparing the transaction, please look for some kind of memo or note that you can attach to it. This is important. Use that memo or note to tell me what this payment is for. Money often comes in for more than one event at a time. If you don’t make any indication about your payment, I’ll spend a minimum amount of effort trying to figure it out, but if nothing becomes immediately apparent, I’ll credit your payment to the general fund. This kind of thing may cause you to miss a deadline.
If you just can’t figure out how to attach a memo to your payment, I’m in sympathy with you. I truly am. But how about if that happens, you send me a quick e-mail, telling me what that money you sent is for?
Receiving money works like this: when you set up your online banking, you will have to supply an e-mail address that the online banking system will use to send and receive money from your account. All I need to know is what that e-mail is. Send a note to me (NOT to CAMTA’s payment e-mail address above) along with your request for reimbursement, asking me to pay you electronically, and include that e-mail address.
2. PayPal
PayPal is so easy. To make a payment, you start by going to the CAMTA website, and finding the event that you want to pay for. At the bottom of that event’s page, there’s a PayPal icon. Click it and follow the instructions. Before you finalize your payment, look carefully for “add special instructions to the seller.” You must use those instructions to tell me what you’re paying for, or I won’t know! Your money will float around in CAMTA limbo, and it will wind up looking like you never paid for your event.
3. Use your credit card in person
We have a credit card reader. I bring it with me to every meeting. Come to the meeting, and I’ll run your credit card for you.