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Charities, along with banks and other financial institutions, have been quick to spot the money making potential of credit cards and today most major charities offer a credit card affiliated to a particular bank. The basic deal is that every time you spend on your credit card, the bank pays a donation to that charity. It is presented by the charity as a win-win situation for everybody; you pay for products with the credit card and your favourite charity receives some money.
The philosophy of alleviating your post shopping guilt with a charitable donation has proved has proved a great financial success and it's no wonder that charities are keen to expand this aspect of their fundraising. Anyone wanting to take out a credit card that supports a charity can choose from a wide variety of cards. A good example is the Macmillan Card (issued with the Bank of Scotland ), which has raised considerable sums of money for scientific research and development and patient care.
There's and age old adage that states if it sounds too good to be true; then it probable isn't, so what's the catch?
There isn't necessarily one, but it is worth checking out the APR that the various cards offer. You may well find that they are considerably higher than with comparable high-street bank cards and it's worth noting that they but they also vary between cards (sometimes by quite a large degree). There's also plenty of variation in benefits and incentives offered, as well as in the basic lending rate. Charity credit cards might be good news for good causes, but they can sometimes be bad news for consumers in terms of inflated interest rates. All in all it might make smarter financial sense to send your favourite charity a sum of money every month; rather than donating by using your credit card.
For those of you wanting to forge on regardless there is a veritable A-Z of worthy causes waiting on the Internet. Before you sign on the dotted line, make sure that you shop around and be careful to read the small print.
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