Brits give more to charities by card than ever before

Figures published by The UK Cards Association show that donations to charitable organisations on plastic cards reached £1.19 billion in 2008 - up from £1.01 billion in 2007 - an increase of 18%. In terms of the amount of donations made on plastic cards there was an overall increase of 13% from 2007 to 2008. Donations on debit cards increased by 16% (up from 13 million in 2007 to 15.1 million last year); whilst credit card transactions rose 9% (9.6 million in 2007 to 10.5 million last year).

Interestingly, whilst more payments to charities are put on debit cards we tend to donate more on credit and charge cards. Last year the total amount donated on credit and charge cards was £639.2 million and £546.9 million on debit cards. One of the reasons for this is that many people donate online and this is one environment where more people prefer to use their credit card instead of a debit card. However, we would expect the gap to narrow in the future as charitable giving on plastic cards follows the overall trends in the market towards debit cards.

Another way of donating to charities is by using an affinity card*. With total spending of £6.7 billion on these cards in 2008 and, on average, 0.25% being the percentage donated to charities, approximately £16.7 million will have been raised through the use of these cards.

Sandra Quinn, director of communications said: "These card figures, showing an 18% increase in charitable giving, tell us an interesting story. Despite the economic downturn it seems there was no let up last year in people's commitments to charities.

"Over the last few years we have seen more charities offer donors additional ways to pay, particularly with cards, and particularly online - all of which makes donating extremely easy, and unquestionably plays a part in the increase in charity spending on plastic cards."