Over £1.5 million donated through HBOS charity cards

Three charities received a total donation of over £1.5 million from Halifax and Bank of Scotland credit cards and their customers during 2006.

Cancer Research UK (CRUK), the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) all received a share of the funds.

Over the past 17 years, HBOS has donated in excess of £19.5 million through its charity credit cards and in 2000, Halifax entered the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most successful charity card provider.

The first time a customer uses a Halifax or Bank of Scotland charity credit card, their chosen charity receives a £20 donation from HBOS. After this, for every £100 the customer spends on the card, HBOS makes a further donation of 25p.

As well as helping a good cause, Halifax charity cards have attractive introductory rates. Customers benefit from 0% on purchases and balance transfers (up to 3% balance transfer fee) for their first six months. Following that, cardholders still benefit from a competitive Typical rate of 16.9% APR (variable).

The HBOS Group also raised more than £4.5m in 2006 through the colleague Million £ Challenge and matched funding. Each year HBOS colleagues arrange a series of fundraising activities to try and raise in excess of £1 million for the chosen charity. Money raised from the 2006 Million £ Challenge is the biggest corporate donation ICAN has ever received, the money will be used to help over 1,000 nurseries train experts to support 60,000 children with special speech and language development needs. Two other charities, Leonard Cheshire and Crisis, also received over £500,000 each.

Since the launch of the scheme in 2002, HBOS Foundation and colleagues have raised more than £15 million for their chosen causes. Ken Stannard, head of cards, said: "Charity Cards are an excellent way of helping worthy causes and customers benefit from great deals in the process. We are really pleased with the amount raised by our customers last year and are hoping to continue this good work into 2007."