Consumers 'using credit cards to give to charity'
Published On 14 March 2008
Consumers are increasingly using their credit cards to make charitable donations, new research has suggested.Apacs, the UK's payments association, revealed that donations to charities via credit cards and other forms of plastic payment rose to £1.013 billion in 2007, up from 842 million in 2006.
The organisation revealed that 2007 was the first year donations on plastic have gone through the £1 billion barrier.
It added that the figures showed that there were 1.3 million more credit card payments to charities during the year and that the average value of a donation was £44.75 during 2007.
"Last year we donated a staggering £1 billion on our cards and it seems very likely that our increasing preference to pledge by plastic has been spurred on by all the growing opportunities to pay online or over the phone," explained Sandra Quinn, director of communications at Apacs.
"The first time many of us used our plastic to donate was on the back of the massive Asian Tsunami appeal and since this time, the average monthly volumes and values donated to charitable organisations by card have continued to rise."
In addition, the research showed that credit cards tied to charities were becoming particularly popular. The figures showed that £7.5 billion was spent on the 4.8 million affinity cards in issue in the UK in 2007, representing an eight per cent increase.
