Wat Samrong Tai has made it possible for visitors to use mobile payments to make donations.
A temple called Wat Samrong Tai in Thailand’s Phra Pradaeng district is using QR code donations to make it easier for visitors to give in an increasingly cashless society.
The temple has created a payment transaction point that involves scanning quick response codes.
The QR code donations are processed by way of the PromptPay system. That mobile payments system is promoted by the Thai government itself. The goal is to help to make it easier for visitors to be able to safely make donations to the temple. At the same time, this method discourages the theft of donated cash. There has been an ongoing problem with stolen donation boxes or stolen cash from those boxes.
Furthermore, using quick response codes for mobile payments based donations helps to make transparency easier in donations handling.
The QR code donations stand to eliminate a number of problems associated with the use of cash.
The temple observed the increasing trend toward cashless transactions in the country and realized that they will also need to be less reliant on cash for their donations, said an advisor to the abbot and a monk at the temple, Phra Maha Boriboon Parisuttho.
The temple consulted with a bank in order to learn more about their options in adopting mobile payments. The bank made the recommendation in favor of QR code payments to allow smartphone users to make donations.
The next step was to consult with the senior clergy, after which the QR code payment system was tested. A major part of the testing occurred at a recently held annual fair, said the monk. Now that the system has been rolled out full time at the temple, it has made Wat Samrong Tai the first one in the Thai province to use mobile payments to receive donations, he explained.
He pointed out that donors find the QR code donations system very easy to use. Once their donation is complete, they are provided with a digital receipt as a payment confirmation. Every time a payment is made, the temple monks, as well as laymen involved in the mobile payments processing, receive an alert through a special app.
