COMMENT
How To Be Generous At No Cost!

By Cliff D'Arcy
December 8, 2005

This time of year is often referred to as the "season of goodwill". It's also a time when millions of us make charitable donations, even if it's just chucking a quid in a collection bucket for Children in Need.

However, there are two ways that you can give generously to charity without handing over your own notes and coins. The first is to use a charity credit card, which is a credit card that makes donations to worthy causes based on your spending. Most of these cards make a one-off donation when you first use them, plus a small percentage of your spending.

There are dozens to choose from, but here is a selection of the most generous charity credit cards, courtesy of Moneyfacts (sorted alphabetically):

Card	Issuer	Initial donation (£)	Ongoing percentage (%)
Amnesty International	Co-operative Bank	15	* 0.25
Cancer Research UK	Halifax	20	0.25
Comic Relief	Nationwide BS	5.85	0.50
Mencap	Halifax	20	0.25
NSPCC	Halifax	20	0.25
RSPB	Co-operative Bank	18	* 0.25

* plus a further £2.50 if the card is used in the first six months.

So, spending, say, £3,000 a year on a Comic Relief Visa card would produce an initial donation of £5.85, plus £15 a year thereafter. Of course, this won't cost you a penny, assuming that you pay off your bill in full every month.

Then again, there is a way to give far more to good causes without using a card which is geared towards a specific charity. All you need to do is to pay for your purchases using a Best Buy cashback credit card. According to Moneyfacts, spending £250 a month on the table-topping Morgan Stanley Platinum or Cashback MasterCard would give you up to £49.99 in the first year. This is a far greater return than any charity credit card currently produces.

Now here's a neat trick: you can hand this fifty quid (let's throw in the extra penny!) over to a charity and see it instantly turned into £64.10, thanks to the wonders of Gift Aid. Under this scheme, taxpayers making gifts to charities see 78p turn into a pound immediately, thanks to 22p of tax relief from the government. What's more, higher-rate taxpayers can claim back a further 18% of this £64.10 gift via their tax return, which means a refund of £11.54 in this example.

Hence, by spending £3,000 a year on a Best Buy cashback card, you can donate more than a fiver a month to your favourite charity by handing over just a penny of your own cash each year. If you're a higher-rate taxpayer, you'll also have £11.54 knocked off your tax bill, too. How cool is that?

More: Why pay interest on your debts? Get a 0% credit card today! | Your Ultimate Guide To Credit Cards.

Cliff owns shares in HBOS, parent company of the Halifax.