Charity credit cards

These are brilliant – if you’re going to get a credit card and spend lots of cash on things, you might as well do so knowing that for every purchase you make a small percentage of that will go towards a charitable cause.  We’re not talking major amounts here, but it’s a start – something like 25p for every £100 spent. This is bound to benefit the charity by raising some income for the charity and elevating the profile of that charity in the mind of the people supporting it in this way. Donations depend on the money spent, not on the size of the outstanding balance, therefore there is no problem with paying off your balance each month as donations will be unaffected by this.

Ethically speaking there is no problem whether the card is VISA or Mastercard. What you should be looking at is the bank with which the card is associated – see our guide to Ethical Banks and Building Societies.

If you’re looking for a bank or card which coincides with your own particular beliefs or charitable concerns, the Co-op Bank cards in particular are worth following – they support Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Help the Aged, Save the Children, Oxfam and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It’s best from your point of view to do a bit of research, first into which bank you are happy with obtaining a credit card from and then which charity you’d like to support. You could of course do it the other way around, or eliminate those banks that you do not wish to support and then select a charity from the remaining banks.