Jacksonville, Dec 13 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Moving on with the times, some Salvation Army kettles in Florida will now accept credit cards for donations. But that doesn’t mean that they will stop accepting normal paper money. However the minimum credit card donation is $5, which might be steep for some too.

These ‘plastic kettles’ debuted on Friday Night at the Jacksonville Symphony, Naples and Port Charlotte. “It’s definitely different because it has a charge thing! I’ve never seen that before!” said Carol Sermarini of Jacksonville. Joan Bender is the kettle campaign coordinator for the Northeast Florida Area Command of The Salvation Army, said that the electronic kettle was rented for around $300. However they are still in a test mode, and depending on the response this year, it will accordingly be decided whether to continue them next year or not.

“Everything is changing, and we want to try everything,” said Bender.

“For somebody, it might be the only time they give and they say ‘Okay, this is the time I will give to the Salvation Army. I’m not going to mail it in. I’m not going to write a check. I’m going to do it right now,’” said Bender. However the Salvation Army says that it is always in need of more volunteers to man its donation kettles in this holiday season.