FORT WORTH -- University Christian Church in Fort Worth wasn't breaking new ground when it offered its members the option of contributing electronically.

According to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, some houses of worship elsewhere in the U.S. have offered the service for five years, and even more are signing up.

St. Michael Catholic Church in Bedford, Texas, Beth-El, a Jewish congregation in southwest Fort Worth, and Dominion Church, an interdenominational congregation in Arlington, Texas, are among those locally that accept electronic giving.

Donors do so by submitting credit card or bank account numbers to the church and by indicating how much money they want deducted from their accounts and how frequently.

Church business executives say it's not clear whether this modern method increases giving overall, but they attest to its advantage: providing a steady stream of contributions on which to project and pace budgets throughout the year.

For example, church giving usually dips in the summer when families take vacations, but a planned electronic deduction keeps the gifts coming while the members are away, said Don Houk, business manager at University Christian.

"It's steady income, and that's very helpful to us," Houk said.

Leighton Haselgrove, director of operations at Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, said the church has offered the electronic option since 1998, but only about 30 of its 600 families use it.

"I think that it will change in the next six months or a year, with more emphasis," said Haselgrove. "The younger generation are more prone to do electronic transfers, and we will be putting our emphasis on that age group."

Lakeside's electronic banking is handled by Minnesota-based Vanco, a five-year-old company that contracts with more than 5,000 churches in 50 states and 18 denominations. The company charges 25 cents per electronic transfer, about $13 a year for a worshipper who gives weekly.

About 67 percent of Vanco's clients give monthly, 13 percent semimonthly and 20 percent weekly, said Len Thiede, the company's senior account manager. Nationally, a monthly donor gives about $2,800 a year, a semimonthly donor about $3,200 and a weekly donor about $3,800.

"We were surprised with those figures because we thought the heavy hitters would give monthly," Thiede said. "It may be that the people who are most committed to their stewardship give weekly."

Thiede said credit card giving is not popular with churches. "The reality is that most people do not pay off their credit cards, so churches do not want to do anything that would help people get into debt."

Jim Hackney, minister of Midtown Church of Christ in Ft. Worth, said the church wants to offer electronic giving, but not via credit cards.

"You have people who learn about the church and they want to tithe, but they can't because they are knee-deep in (credit card) debt," Hackney said.

Larry Sweat, business manager at St. Michael said he doesn't expect the majority of people to begin giving electronically when his church offers it in the future.

"Some people enjoy the physical aspects of dropping it into a plate," Sweat said, "particularly the older people who are not as used to using technology."