What are the charges for different donation methods?

steve3742

Hi, I'm thinking of making a donation to the DEC Pakistan Floods appeal, probably about £100. What I'd like to know is which method of donation would incur the least charges to the charity? The main options I can see are:

Credit Card - likely incurs a lot of charges on a percentage basis - 2-3%?
Debit Card - as above but cheaper - 1-2%?
Cheque - I think this is a flat fee - 50p? - in which case for £100 it works out at 0.5%
Direct Bank Transfer - I think this is free. However, i can't see any way to combine it with Gift Aid, so that would actually work out more costly.

All the above are essentially guesses. Despite a lot of googling, I've not been able to find out any facts. Anybody know the rates above?

Thanks

Savvy_Sue

I'd start with Martin's article, and move on to the discussion article it links to.

However, if you give by bank transfer, you could then post a Gift Aid declaration to the charity (or ask them to send you a form), and they would then reclaim the tax themselves.

To be fair, the charges made to the charity aren't unreasonable, IMO, especially if you use the 'cheaper' sites. Having done the Gift Aid claim for a small charity a few times, it's not a trivial exercise, so having someone else do it automatically saves staff time, and I think we're better off using Virgin etc than having me do it!

steve3742

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I'd start with Martin's article, and move on to the discussion article it links to.

Interesting article - I note the huge difference between B my charity and Mission Fish - however, I'm planning to donate to the DEC website and they, presumably, do the Gift Aid and other financial processing themselves. Or they subcontract it to someone else, possibly one of the companies on Martin's article. Either way, I'm interested in which method of donation maximises the amount they receive. Debit Card, Credit Card, Cheque, Bank Transfer - any idea?

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

To be fair, the charges made to the charity aren't unreasonable, IMO, especially if you use the 'cheaper' sites. Having done the Gift Aid claim for a small charity a few times, it's not a trivial exercise, so having someone else do it automatically saves staff time, and I think we're better off using Virgin etc than having me do it!

I agree with this. I don't object to paying companies like the ones on Martin's article a percentage of a donation to cover the costs of the financial processing, any more than I object to paying the Royal Mail the cost of a stamp if I send it in by cheque (although I'm shocked at the amount of the difference between the different companies and I suspect that, for the ones at the bottom of the table, the charges are unreasonable.) Having said that, I am interested in keeping it as low as possible, so as to maximise the donation.

Savvy_Sue

Sorry, didn't read the question fully.

TBH, I think the answer to what's cheapest is 'it depends'.

However, a good site (and I haven't perused the DEC site lately!) would be transparent both about the costs to you, and the costs to them, IMO. You would hope that they're not being charged to bank cheques, for example.

Just wondering if you've tried starting to make the donation? You should be able to duck out at any point if you don't like the charges involved. Actually, I've been to have a look myself: their FAQ page says they don't pay commission on credit card donations, so I'd go for whichever method is cheapest for you!