With my bank, when you process, online, a payment, it automatically goes out on the following day. If I authorize it on Friday they will send it on Saturday. I can also request any future date I want. Is there a problem if they process it on Shabbos?
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Must it go out the next day? Would they be violating their 'contract' to send it out right away? What about if they sent it out late on Sautrday night?– Double AA ♦Feb 14, 2012 at 20:27
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Related: Script running on Shabbat, Asking on SO right before Shabbat, E-commerce site open on Shabbat.– Isaac Moses ♦Feb 14, 2012 at 21:05
1 Answer
This is discussed in an article on my rebbe's website, about kinyanim (transactions) on the internet:
A serious issue that is often raised today is whether one may maintain one's website to conduct business transactions on Shabbat. Although this author is unaware of Teshuvot written on this topic, two important discussions serve as a basis for discussion of website operation on Shabbat. Dayan Yitzchak Weisz (Teshuvot Minchat Yitzchak 3:34) discusses the permissibility of maintaining a vending machine in a public area that operates on Shabbat. He notes many authorities (including Rav Akiva Eiger) that forbid taking title to items on Shabbat even if the transaction took place during the weekday. To avoid this problem Dayan Weisz suggests that the owner declare that he does not take title to the money deposited in the machine until after Shabbat and that the purchasers acquire title prior to Shabbat to the items that they will take from the machine on Shabbat. Prominent rabbis have expressed serious reservations about the validity of this solution to this author.
Rav Uri Dasberg (Techumin 19:349-363) discusses whether a bank may allow its automatic teller machines to operate on Shabbat. Among his suggestions is arranging that the machine display a message urging customers not to use the machine on Shabbat. Prominent rabbis have expressed serious reservations about this suggestion as well. Indeed, Rav Dasberg notes that the late Rav Shlomo Goren forbade Bank Hamizrachi to keep its ATMs in operation on Shabbat. Accordingly, one should ask his Rav for a Halachic ruling regarding this serious Halachic issue.