Back in July, we gave you a round-up of the best charity cards on the market. Charity, or “affinity”, cards are certainly popular and the better ones raise substantial sums of money for good causes. And yet...with a wide range of cards offering cashback, you could benefit your favourite organisation even more by directly donating cashback “earnings” to the charity.
The most generous charity credit cards donate more than 1% of your spend to the charity, as well as making a one-off donation, typically £20, when the card is first issued. A card like the Halifax NSPCC Charity Card is more typical, however, with 0.25% of all purchases donated by Halifax to NSPCC. So, if you spend £3000 on your card in the first twelve months, the NSPCC will receive a funding boost of £35 (the initial £20 donation plus £15). It hasn’t cost you anything, but it’s not a huge amount of money all the same.
[http://www.barclaycard.co.uk/products/apply/platinum.html?TC=AAHFA10918 Barclaycard Platinum Cashback Credit Card offers 2% cashback on petrol and supermarket shopping, and 0.5% cashback on any other money spent.
A further advantage of donating cashback is that you can deal directly with the charity, and sign up for Gift Aid, so that the organisation can reclaim this tax to increase the value of a donation. Currently, hardly any credit cards automatically add Gift Aid on top of the percentage donation from your spend. The “donate as you spend” Hope for Children Mastercard is one of the few that do.
Ultimately, if you think you wouldn’t get round to making a donation directly, then a charity credit card may be an effective way of giving. Affiliating with a bank does also help raise the profile of a charity – something which in itself often helps the charity by boosting awareness and financial support. However, if you’re disciplined enough to do it, saving your cashback and donating it directly could do a lot more than a run-of-the-mill charity card.
Your email address is required so we can verify that the comment is genuine. It will not be posted anywhere on the site, will be stored confidentially by us and never given out to any third party.