Brits donated over £1billion to charity in 2007 using their credit and debit cards.
Over £1 billion was donated to charity in 2007 as a result of debit and credit card spending, the first time £1 billion pound barrier has been broken.
In a recent report, payments body APACS revealed that a massive £1.013 billion was donated to charitable organizations via plastic cards last year, compared with £842 million donated in 2006.
The actual number of donations increased from 18.5 million in 2006 to 22.6 million in 2007 giving a total volume increase of 23%, with £44.75 being the 2007 average amount donated by charity credit and debit cards.
APACS found that debit cards are the preferred method of plastic giving with 2.9 million more debit cards being used to donate, compared to 1.3 million credit cards.
Director of communications, Sandra Quinn, said: “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.”
Affinity cards are another popular way people are giving to charity and cost the user nothing. The card issuer makes the donation at the time of opening the card account or activation and some make subsequent donations depending on card usage. Approximately £7.5 billion was spent on 4.8 million affinity cards in 2007, an increase of 8% from 2006.
The origins of this donating trend can be found in the wake of the Tsunami in 2004 as Ms Quinn reports: “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 has continued to rise."
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