Part 12 of our ongoing Fraud in the Church series. PSK in cooperation with the National Association of Church Business Administration (NACBA) conducted a survey to determine the extent to which churches are attempting to address the problem of church fraud. We asked them to respond to this statement:

Our church has implemented a written credit card policy to control credit card purchases.

Ok, I know I was a little harsh in the last post…  I guess it’s because I have seen too many credit card train wrecks!  The million dollar event I discussed in the last post was definitely the largest, but I have seen many of its smaller brothers and sisters.

Although over 80% of the surveyed churches issue church-named credit cards, the results of the next query gives me some comfort.  70% of these churches have implemented a church credit card policy to monitor credit purchases.  Unfortunately, that leaves nearly a third with no documented policies to give oversight over credit card purchases.  Based on the things I have seen, these 30 percenters are living on the edge.

It is imperative that any church issuing credit cards to employees and volunteers has a credit card policy to lay down usage guidelines.

At a bare minimum a church credit card policy should:

1. Limit the dollar amounts of single purchases, and
2. Restrict the use of the cards to certain businesses.

What would you add to these two requirements?