Donating by DD to a foreign charity

travelbug63

I'm looking to make a monthly donation to a great charity I've become aware of in South Africa. Talking to my bank (Halifax), they would charge me £9:50 for every payment I make and that's before they make any addition profit from the exchange rate they offer.
I'd be really gratful for any advise as to how to get the largest % amount of what I'm donating directly into the charities account

Archi_Bald

You might be able to set up regular payments to the charity using something like[URL="https://transferwise.com/] Transferwise.[/URL] It's going to be a 'push' rather than a 'pull' though. You can't, for obvious reasons, have a non-UK company pull money from your UK bank account.

EDIT: Just checked, Transferwise do not support automatic repeat payments. You could still make a manual monthly or other interval payment though, at much lower cost than using a bank.

May be one of the other currency transfer services will support regular payments: https://www.fxcompared.com/. Also electronic wallets such as Skrill and Paypal could pull money automatically but a) they are expensive and b) it will only work if the payee initiates the pull, i.e. has an account with them.

grumbler

travelbug63 wrote: »

I'm looking to make a monthly donation to a great charity I've become aware of in South Africa. Talking to my bank (Halifax), they would charge me £9:50 for every payment I make and that's before they make any addition profit from the exchange rate they offer.
I'd be really gratful for any advise as to how to get the largest % amount of what I'm donating directly into the charities account

advice

Any chance it can be a regular card payment (CPA)?

travelbug63

Thanks for your prompt replies

"Any chance it can be a regular card payment (CPA)?"

I don't see why not, without sounding to ignorant do you mean a payment from my regular Credit Card or Debit Card.?

agrinnall

However you end up doing it you'll be paying 12 sets of fees each year if you decide to donate monthly. You'd be better making an annual payment and paying one fee, then you can decide whether the saving can go back into your pocket or be added to your donation to the charity. Monthly payments might offer smoothing of the exchange rate fluctuations, but you can't know in advance whether that is to your advantage or not.

eDicky

Archi_Bald wrote: »

.
EDIT: Just checked, Transferwise do not support automatic repeat payments. You could still make a manual monthly or other interval payment though, at much lower cost than using a bank.

Repeat payments using TransferWise, although not automatic are very easy, because the payee's details remain listed on your account page and there is no need to enter them again. The charge is a fixed percentage (probably 0.5%) of the amount sent (unless it's below a minimum charge), converted at the mid-market rate, so no more expensive for monthly remittance than an annual lump sum.

grumbler

travelbug63 wrote: »

"Any chance it can be a regular card payment (CPA)?"

I don't see why not, without sounding to ignorant do you mean a payment from my regular Credit Card or Debit Card.?

If they support this option you can authorise them to take regular payments from your debit or credit card.

MSE article: Continuous payment authority: manage recurring payments

Ballard

Is there any chance that they have a sterling account in the UK? It's probably unlikely if it's a small charity but if they try to raise funds here it's not impossible.

joeblags

charity starts at home


http://help4homelessveterans.org.uk/donate

Zinger549

That doesn't really help the Op does it.

pmduk

Have you checked whether your chosen charity can be funded via the Charities aid foundation? Unlikely if it's based abroad, but worth checking.