Charity Credit Cards
Charity cards are a simple way of supporting your favourite charity at no extra cost, simply through your everyday card spending.
When you're approved for a card, a small donation of around £15 is made to the charity in question, and this is back up up by a small percentage of everything you spend in the future also being donated.
The figures involved aren't huge, with 0.25% of your spending being a typical donation rate, and the cards themselves aren't often great value in comparison to many competitors.
Nonetheless, they make a painless way to donate at least something to charity, and every little helps.
There are hundreds of different charity cards available, many of them in this country operated by MBNA (see list below), but among the two most well known are the American Express Red which donates up to a generous 1.25% of spending to helping fight disease and poverty in Africa, while still having an attractive interest rate, and the RSPCA Card which donates 0.25% to the animal charity.
Co-op Think Credit Card
The Think credit card from the Co-operative Bank is a card for people with an interest in the future of the planet. Half an acre of Brazilian rainforest is bought and protected in your name when you first use your card, and from then on donations of 25p per £100 spent will be made to the Cool Earth charity to enable them to buy and protect yet more rainforest.
The card also rewards you for spending ethically: you get a purchase rate of just 7% when you use the card at retailers selected for their ethical policies, including Ikea, Arriva, Lush, The Co-op and many more.
The Co-operative Bank also offer a more specific charity card, the Shelter Credit Card, which as well as making donations to the homeless charity also offers a simple low flat rate across both purchases and balance transfers.
MBNA Charity Cards
MBNA operate a wide range of charity cards and other affinity cards, a few of which are listed below. Unfortunately the range changes often, so no guarantees can be made these cards are still available. All cards share broadly the same features of a 0% balance transfer deal and a mid-range standard rate - see the MBNA site for full details.
Breakthrough Breast Cancer - seeking a cure for breast cancer
British Heart Foundation - research into heart disease
National Trust - taking care of our countryside
World Wildlife Fund - supporting worldwide wildlife and environmental issues
