query: Should I give to charity by check or credit card?

positive: As someone that has run a nonprofit, my 2 cents: First: thank you for giving and for being conscientious about wanting to make things as easy as possible. The best method is the one you'll actually do. If there is a chance that you will end up not donating by check because you don't have a stamp, you forget, etc. go ahead and do it online. A donation with a fee is better than an intention without one. We had one case where a potential donor decided to give, but was so worried about the processing fee that they wanted to write a check. We followed up 3 times on the pledge, spent time following up with the pledge's connection that wanted to see if it came through, and in the end they never sent the check. Their pledge wound up costing us staff time and money as we tried to make their giving easy.  If you are as likely to give, size matters. My rule of thumb is that if you are giving $1 up to about a hundred dollars, the fee (which most nonprofits can get to about 3% or 3.5%) is about the same as the added staff time opening the check, adding an extra to the deposit slip, etc. But as soon as you are giving a couple hundred dollars and especially if you are giving in the thousands, it is definitely better to do it by check. Most banks don't charge an extra deposit fee at the scale of most nonprofits, and we probably have some run to the bank happening in the next day or two. Really your thank you note should be the same whether online or by check (even though you'll get the auto-thank you online), so that time difference shouldn't really play into it. The donation will be appreciated either way.  While I cringe a bit if I see a $1,500 donation come through online knowing that the check would be cheaper, that is far outweighed by the thankfulness that someone thought of us and made it happen.

positive: This kind of questions keeps repeating itself on this site and the answer is generally it doesn't matter. As you said yourself, there are costs either way, and these costs are comparable. Generally, merchant fees differ tremendously between the different kinds of merchants, and while gas stations and video rentals may pay up to 5% and even more, charitable organizations and community services are usually not considered as high fraud risk operation and are charged much lower fees. Either way, paying employees, managing cash/check deposits or paying merchant fees is part of the charity operational expenses. Together with maintaining offices, postal office boxes, office supplies, postage expenses and formal stationary and envelopes needed for physical donations handling. I would guess that if the charity's majority of donations come on-line as credit card/paypal payments - check handling will be more expensive. So I suggest you take the route you consider majority of donors pay - that would be the cheapest for them to handle. I would guess, credit cards being the most convenient - would be the way to go.

positive: "The definite answer if you want to give a larger amount of money is: Ask the charity. Just drop them a mail with something like: Dear Sirs, I've decided to donate you $1,000,000 because I like what you do. Could you please tell me which option is more convenient and less costly for you? I can do either an online debit/credit card payment, send you a check by mail, or make a bank transfer [cross out whichever you can't do]. I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Yours faithfully, Even if you give ""just"" $2,000, it's surely enough to be worth for them writing you a reply and clarifying whichever way they prefer, so you don't waste neither their time nor the money this way."

positive: In the US, if it's a large donation to a tax-exempt organization (401c3 or equivalent), you may want to consider giving appreciated equities (stocks, bonds, mutual fund shares which are now worth more than you paid for them).  You get to claim the deduction's value at the time you transfer it to their account, and you avoid capital gains tax.  They would pay the capital-gains tax when they redeem it for cash... but if exempt, they get the full value and the tax is completely avoided.  Effectively,  your donation costs you less for the same impact.  It does take a bit of work to coordinate this with the receiving organization, and there may be brokerage fees, so it probably isn't worth doing for small sums.)Transfers within the same brokerage house may avoid those feee.) So again, you should talk to the charity about what's best. But for larger donations, where larger probably starts at a few thou, it can save you a nice chunk of change.

positive: This might be blasphemy in the context of an audience that may be most focused on the gift itself, but you should be donating in a manner that helps advance the landscape, as well as your particular favourite charity. Almost 90% of businesses are in the process of trying to move away from issuing and receiving checks, and several countries in the world have already stopped using them. Checks are inefficient, costly and in a resource constrained environment like that facing most charities, create an opportunity cost that is even higher than the manual processing cost that flows directly.  As donors, we need to think about scale in a manner that many individual charities don't.  Send your donation via ACH!

negative: Definitely push for a check, they may not do anything nefarious with your credit card number however someone else may be able to read the email before it gets to its final destination. It's never safe to give out credit card number in a less than secure interface. Also, if this is a well known company, then the person interacting with you should know better than to ask for your information through email.

negative: "You should check if your card issuer provides a ""Bill Pay"" service. I have a CapitalOne card, and I know they don't. But Wells Fargo may, I don't know. However, for that to work your biller must accept credit cards as payments, at least that's the restriction I have with such a feature on my USBank card. That means, that if the company doesn't accept credit cards directly - they're likely not to participate in the credit cards' bill-pay system as well. Some credit cards are actually mailing these balance transfer checks quite frequently trying to ""seduce"" you into taking advantage of your available credit. Unless you really don't have any other choice - you shouldn't. But if that's the only way you have of paying - go for it. That willwill not be treated as a cash advance but rather as balance transfer. You can call the customer service and have them a check mailed to you. You may want to consider talking to your bank and checking if they can give you a line of credit. That would be similar to the credit card (i.e.: revolving credit line) from your credit report/score perspective, but may have lower interest rates."

negative: For those who don't know, credit card checks are blank checks that your credit card company sends you.  When you fill them out and spend them, you are taking a cash advance on your credit card account.  You should be aware that taking a cash advance on your credit card normally has extra fees and finance charges above what you have with regular credit card transactions. That having been said, when you take one of these to your bank and try to deposit them, it is entirely up to bank policy how long they will make you wait to use these funds.  They want to be sure that it is a legitimate check and that it will be honored.  If your teller doesn't know the answer to that question, you'll need to find someone at the bank who does.  If you don't like the answer they give you, you'll need to find another bank. I would think that if the credit card is from Chase, and you are trying to deposit a credit card check into a Chase checking account, they should be able to do that instantly.  However, bank policy doesn't always make sense.

negative: When you want to pay a bill on line there are several ways to do it. You can give them your credit card details: Name on Card, zip code, credit card number, and 3 or 4 digit security code on the back. Most of the information is available on the card or via an easy Google search. If the crook has your card they can use it to buy something.  You can contact your bank's website and establish a one time or recurring transfer. You provide the information about the person/company. Your bank knows who you are because you used a secure system and your password. Their bank accepts the money because who would refuse money, they don't care who you are. You can provide the company with your bank info (bank number, your account number, and your name). If your bank limits their transactions via this method only to legitimate organizations, then your money will only be sent to legitimate organizations. But if the organization has no way of knowing who is on the other end of the phone or webpage, they may be withdrawing money from a bank account without the account owners permission.  In the example article a person found a charity that had lax security standards, they were recognized by the bank as a legitimate organization, so the bank transferred the money. The charity will point to the form and say they had permission from the owner, but in reality they didn't.  The subject of the article was correct, all the info required is on every check. It is just that most people are honest, and the few security hurdles that exist do stop most of the fraud.

negative: This depends on if you're talking Secured credit card, or prepaid debit card. There is no separate category for secured credit cards in the IIN list; however, it is possible some of them are classified as debit cards (despite not being debit cards).  You may want to check with the issuer to verify this (and you can check the IIN, or the first 6 digits of the card number, in the list I link to above to verify).  However, prepaid debit cards are debit cards, and are less likely to be accepted for travel, rental car, hotel, etc. types of charges (where a hold, similar to a deposit, is charged to the account). This is one of the major differences between a prepaid card, such as the kind you top up at the grocer, and a secured credit card, where you deposit some money but separately pay back the amount you charge on the card (as a regular card). Secured cards are classified as credit cards, while prepaid cards are debit cards. As mhoran notes, it's possible your credit limit could be too low to allow a hotel, airline, or rental agency to allow a transaction, but otherwise it should be fine.

negative: "Congratulations. The first savings goal should be an emergency fund.  Think of this not as an investment, but as insurance against life's woes.  They happen and having this kind of money earmarked allows one to invest without needing to withdraw at an inopportune time.   This should go into a ""high interest"" savings account or money market account.  Figure three to six months of expenses. The next goal should be retirement savings.  In the US this is typically done through 401K or if your company does not offer one, either a ROTH IRA or Traditional IRA.  The goal should be about 15% of your income.  You should favor a 401k match over just about anything else, and then a ROTH over that.   The key to transforming from a broke college student into a person with a real job, and disposable income, is a budget.  Otherwise you might just end up as a broke person with a real job (not fun).  Part of your budget should include savings, spending, and giving.  All three areas are the key to building wealth.   Once you have all of those taking care of the real fun begins.  That is you have an emergency fund, you are putting 15% to retirement, you are spending some on yourself, and giving to a charity of your choice.  Then you can dream some with any money left over (after expenses of course).   Do you want to retire early?  Invest more for retirement.  Looking to buy a home or own a bunch of rental property?  Start educating yourself and invest for that.   Are you passionate about a certain charity?  Give more and save some money to take time off in order to volunteer for that charity. All that and more can be yours.  Budgeting is a key concept, and the younger you start the easier it gets.   While the financiers will disagree with me, you cannot really invest if you are borrowing money.  Keep debt to zero or just on a primary residence.  I can tell you from personal experience that I did not started building wealth until I made a firm commitment to being out of debt. Buy cars for cash and never pay credit card interest.  Pay off student loans as soon as possible. For some reason the idea of giving to charity invokes rancor.  A cursory study of millionaires will indicate some surprising facts:  most of them are self made, most of them behave differently than pop culture, and among other things most of them are generous givers.  Building wealth is about behavior.  Giving to charity is part of that behavior.  Its my own theory that giving does almost no good for the recipient, but a great amount of good for the giver.   This may seem difficult to believe, but I ask that you try it."

negative: By handicap - I believe we should have a very simple safety net bimonthly check to help their guardians pay for their housing/food/healthcare. We should aim for this to be as small as possible while still covering everything and have the majority of pay be from charity.  Lack of skills - nothing. They need to learn skills to survive just like everyone else. If you steal from the skillful to give to them there will be no incentive to learn skills and we will have less productive people in the country which leads to more poverty and lower standard of livings. It's also not moral to steal from one able person to give to another.

negative: I have a CapitalOne credit card, and every two or three weeks, CapitalOne Bank sends me checks that can be used almost anywhere (including a deposit into my own checking account if I wish, or to pay taxes or utility bills etc)). The amount thus borrowed is counted as a balance transfer (as if I  were paying off another credit-card balance) and it will be charged 0% interest for a year.  The catch is that unless I pay off the next monthly statement in full by the due date, I will be charged interest on all new purchases from the day that they post to the account till the day they are paid off. No more grace period etc.  All this will continue until that loan amount is paid off in full.  So, I either would have to (i) pay off all the purchases made this month plus the minimum monthly payment shown on the next monthly statement and give up use of the card till that 0% balance is all repaid, or (ii) pay interest on new purchases.   It might be worth checking on the CapitalOne Credit Card site if such an offer is available to you.  If so, get a check from them, pay off the invoice using that check (actually, I would strongly recommend depositing the money in your local bank and writing them your personal check for the amount to be paid), and then pay off next month's bill in full, etc.

negative: If you know that you have a reasonable credit history, and you know that your FICO score is in the 690-neighborhood, and the dealer tells you that you have no credit history, then you also know one of two things: Either way, you should walk away from the deal.  If the dealer is willing to lie to you about your credit score, the dealer is also willing to give you a bad deal in other respects. Consider buying a cheaper used car that has been checked out by a mechanic of your choice.  If possible, pay cash; if not, borrow as small an amount as possible from a credit union, bank, or even a very low-interest rate credit card.  (Credit cards force you to pay off the loan quickly, and do not tie up your car title.  I still have not managed to get my credit union loan off of my car title, ten years after I paid it off.)

negative: I stopped using pre-authorized payments for things like telephone etc., because it made it more possible/likely for a fraudulent charge to sneak by. But if there is an occasion for choosing pre-authorized payments (like charities, and places of exact fixed price) I use my credit card because then I also get points. Furthermore, I reason (perhaps wrongly) that if there is intermediary step between actual money (bank account) and the source of the bill then it gives me better chance of catching irregularities and hence a little safer.  I am sure other members here will laugh my naivety, but there you have it.

negative: Why would a lender for a down payment want proof of income for a house when a credit card issuer gave me more and doesn't care? The risk profile and rate of interest are different.  Could I use this argument as a basis that they have no reasoning to request proof of income, if another lender (credit card company) would give me more without proof of repayment? You could argue anything, but it does not mean the other company will agree with your argument. Should I borrow a home loan from a credit card company then? Or what's the catch here? You can. Check the rate of interest and penal fees; you would realize how much you will end up paying. Depending on the country, the difference could be in the region of 10-15%.

negative: credit cards are almost never closed for inactivity. i have had dozens of cards innactive for years on end, and only one was ever closed on me for inactivity. i would bet a single 1$ transaction per calendar year would keep all your cards open.  as such, you could forget automating the process and just spend 20 minutes a year making manual 1$ payments (e.g. to your isp, utility company, google play, etc.).  alternatively, many charities will let you set up an automatic monthly donation for any amount (e.g. 1$ to wikipedia). or perhaps you could treat yourself to an mp3 once a month (arguably a charitable donation in the age of file sharing). side note: i use both of these strategies to get the 12 debit card transactions per month required by my kasasa checking account.

negative: "Having worked for both a non-profit and a charity, it is my recommendation that you always donate directly to the charity, and not through any form of solicitation.  Most of the telephone calls that you receive are likely from telemarketing companies.  It has been my experience (through exploring them as a means of fundraising) that the charity will likely only see about 10% - 25% of the funds raised in their name!!  I imagine that a number of door to door solicitations are also done by professional fundraisers. WRT sharing of lists, it is likely not the charities that share the lists, but the companies that they hire to solicit for them.  I always ask to be put on their ""do not call"" list To verify that a person collecting at your door is from the charity that they represent, can you pledge a donation, buying time to look into them?  Or write a cheque in the name of the charity if it is known to you?  I doubt that many scammers would go to the trouble of trying to open a bank account in the charity's name. I like YMCbuzz's point about the online donation - I use CanadaHelps.org.  They are very upfront about the small (3%) fee that they charge, and the rest of the money goes to the charity.  I have used them working for a charity, so I can vouch for how much is sent to the charity."

negative: "It really depends on what your goals are.  If your intent is to benefit the charity, I'm sure that they would tell you that the sooner you give them the money, the better. If they think that the money would do them more good invested then spent, they will invest it.  The money you have sitting in your ""charitable account"" doesn't benefit anyone until you give it away. It really doesn't benefit you, either. You take your tax deduction when you contribute, and it is really out of your hands at this point.  The only reason I could see for using a charitable account this way is if you don't know who you want to give money to. If this is the case, you can contribute money to your charitable account now and take the tax deduction now, and wait to identify a worthy charity later.  But if I were you, I wouldn't wait too long to find someone to give the money to. There are lots of good organizations that would do a lot of good with that money, and the sooner they get it, the better. If you skip the charitable account and donate directly to them on a regular basis, you can experience the joy of partnering with a charity to help people. If you decide in the future to switch to a different charity, then you do so. Waiting until the ""right time"" to donate doesn't really do anyone any good."

negative: The check is from your credit card company.  Whose ever the money is, it is certainly not the credit card company's, and they know that.  This is why they cut the check to you.  You should definitely cash the check (or deposit it into your bank account).   You've tried to contact the mattress store multiple times, and they aren't responding.  At some point, you've got to say that you've done everything that you could to do the right thing.   Now, keep in mind that at some point in the future, the mattress store may come back to you and ask for the money back.  If I were you, I would not spend this money for quite some time.  Put it away in a savings account (maybe add it to your emergency fund).  Then if they come back in the future looking for money, you can easily write them a check.  You probably also want to keep some documentation on what you've done already to try to give the money back to them, just in case for some reason they try to claim that you owe them some interest or something like that.

negative: CC always (applies only if you pay your balance in full). First you rack up points on your card, second if there is an unauthorized pull a Cc will help you a bank may or may not. As a general advice don't hand out your banking information like a credit card number. Now paying bills through the bank is a different matter.  This advice applies to companies that would like to pull money from bank accounts.  Never do that if Cc is an alternative.

negative: "As others have stated, credit (signature required) is processed through their respective networks (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express). A ""debit"" card tied to your checking account, still go through the same credit network even though the funds are guaranteed from your checking rather than a free loan 30-60 days which has the potential to be unpaid. This type of debit card purchase may be eligible for a lower processing rate for less risk. Debit cards can also be processed through the debit network (PIN required, no signature). This is typically a straight fee such as $0.35.  Fees vary, but let me give you a simple comparison: Say you are at the supermarket and buy $50 worth of groceries with a debit card with Visa logo. You are asked ""credit"" or ""debit"": At my supermarket, this is why I am given the option to enter my PIN first. If I want to pay by credit, I have to tap Cancel to process via credit signature."

negative: you should pay cash. always pay cash or debit card. never use credits unless absolutely required. if you so poor that you need credit card you must reduce your costs! don't buy anything except food, start making money, then you will buy everything! and you should buy cheapest food now

negative: Give this a try https://www.catalogchoice.org/ I started using it about 6 months ago and my junk mail intake has lowered dramatically! About the only thing I get regularly are stupid cash advance checks from companies I have credit cards with.

negative: I wouldn't worry about his credit score. The hit from a credit inquiry is not that big and it's absolutely worth it in the long run. I suggest you sign him up for a free budgeting app (just google budgeting app) that will help him not only take control of his spending but also help him with his loans. Transferring debt comes with a few caveats:  His credit score is bad so I don't know if he'll be able to get 0% loan, but even if he gets 6% - 8% that will save him money; just don't forget about the transfer fee.  If he has checking/savings account it's worth talking to that bank first - they might be able to give him a better deal for being their customer. Also if he tells them his story and credit score they might be able to give him an idea what they can offer him without doing a credit check.  Another option is to become a member of a local credit union - they have great rates on loans / credit cards. Credit card or personal loan doesn't matter much, whatever he can get. With his credit score I doubt he'll be able to get a good rate at Chase or one of the other big credit card companies. Good luck.

negative: "There are some banks that offer ""pot"" accounts like this (off the top of my head I think Intelligent Finance does, although they call them ""jars"").  The other option for charity specifically would be a CAF account:  https://www.cafonline.org/my-personal-giving/plan-your-giving/individual-charity-account.aspx"

negative: Go the opposite approach.  Budget a certain amount of cash and keep it combined.  Don't exceed it (but next time budget more if you need to).   If you were in the USA (where card acceptance is near universal) what I do is simply use my visa check card for all purchases and download it to my personal finance software, where you can assign categories.

negative: I have a Citi card that gives me checks all of the time.  Most of the time it requires the 3%/minimum $10 or whatever, but occasionally when they're trying to sucker you into borrowing money from them they will let you take $1,500 w/ no fee for 6 months.  Outside of that I've never seen it exist in modern credit cards.

negative: "Based on past case law, a check made payable to qualified charity and delivered (e.g., placed in the mail on 12/31 would count as delivered as it is out of the hands of the donor) would fall under the ""constructive receipt doctrine"". However, for non-charitable gifts (e.g., gifts to family members) it is the date the check is cashed (honored by the receiving bank).  This is important as the annual gift exclusion is just that ""Annual"".  Therefore, if I gift my child $14,000 by writing a check on 12/31/2014 but they deposit it on 1/3/2015 then I have used my annual gift exclusion for 2015 and not 2014.  This means I could not gift them anything further in 2015. BTW the annual gift amount is for ALL gifts cash and non-cash.  Most people don't seem to realize this.  If I give $14,000 of cash to my child and then also give them Christmas gifts with a value of $1,000 I have exceeded my annual gift exclusion to that child.  Usually there are ways around this issue as I can give $14,000 to each and every person I want and if married my spouse can do the same.  This allows us to give $14,000 from each of us to each child plus $14,000 from each of us to their spouse if married and $14,000 from each of us to each of their children if they have any."

negative: "You have what is called in the biz a ""thin file"".  Check with a Credit Union.  They will get you a secured card or maybe a straight credit card.  They usually will graduate you from a secured card to a real credit card in 12-18 months. Then you are on your way.   You should also sign up for Creditkarma to get your credit report updated every week.  They make their money on referring people to credit card companies so you might be able to kill two birds with one stone."

negative: "Transferring the balance of a credit card is what they call moving your debt from one credit card to another credit card or loan.  A debit card, however, is not debt. It is a card that is tied to a checking account with money in it. You can't transfer debt to your checking account. If you have enough money in your checking account to cover the balance of your credit card, you can pay it off.  That is a really good thing to do, because the balance on your credit card is costing you a lot in interest charges each month.  Were you perhaps thinking of ""transferring a balance"" from your debit card's checking account to a new credit card, where you would then have a new debt on the credit card, and extra cash in your debit card's checking account? This is possible with most credit cards, and is usually called a cash advance. However, just to caution you, cash advances typically have high interest rates. Often you will see promotions where they will offer low (or no) interest rate for a short time, but this is just a trick to entice you to borrow extra, knowing that if you need the money now, you'll most likely still need it in 6 months when the promotion expires. I don't recommend it."

negative: "Bank of America has been selling off their local branches to smaller banks in recent years.  Here are a few news stories related to this: Along with the branch buildings, the local customers' savings and checking accounts are sold to the new bank.  It is interesting that you were told that your savings account is being sold, but that your checking account will remain with BofA.  I guess it depends on the terms of the particular sale. Here are your options, as I see it: Let the savings account move to the new bank, and see what the new terms are like.  You might actually like the new bank.  If you don't, you can shop around and close your account at the new bank after it has been created. Close your account now, before the move.  If you have a different bank you'd like to move to, there is no need to wait. Since your checking account is apparently staying with BofA, you could move all your money from your savings account to your checking account, closing your savings account.  Then after ""mid August"" when the local branch switches to the new bank and everyone else's savings account has moved, you can call up BofA and tell them you want to move some of the money from your checking account into a new savings account. If you really have your heart set on staying with BofA, option 3 looks like a good, easy choice. To address your other concerns: Bank of America is a big credit card company, so I doubt that your credit card is being sold off.  Your credit card account should stay as-is.  Even if your savings account and checking account are at a different bank, there is no need to switch credit cards. Your savings and checking accounts have nothing to do with your credit report or score, so there is no concern there.  If you end up wanting to switch to a new credit card with a different bank, there are minor hits to your credit score involved with applying for a new card and closing your current card, but if I were you I would not worry about your credit score in this.  Switch credit cards if you want a change, and keep your credit card if you don't."

negative: "Agreed. One of the comments for this question Good books for learning about tax strategy/planning uses the phrase:  ""Don't let the tax tail wag the investing dog.""  It applies to charitable donations. Donate because it is expected by your church; donate because it makes you feel good; but don't donate just to save money on your taxes.  Once you have decided to donate take the steps necessary to be able to deduct your donation. Get the receipt or use a check or credit card so you can deduct the donation."

negative: What would you do if you had the check?  Probably destroy it.  The goal is to render it uncashable.  One way to do such is to have it shredded.   If you are uncomfortable leaving them to destroy it, then swing by and pick it up.  Alternatively offer to send them a self addressed and stamped envelope.  I am sure they will accommodate if you ask nicely.

negative: "> Every credit card has a space on the back for a signature. And for decades, retailers would check the signature on your ID ... This worked for a long time, until retailers ...  For decades, retailers never compared signatures on credit cards to the person's signature. Impractical and not even worth it as anyone can copy a signature on a card.  Neither do banks bother to check for signature. They don't even have a ""signature on-file"" anymore.   Try it! Deposit a check or buy with a credit card and scribble something unrelated as a signature! The deposit or credit card transaction will go through. I guarantee you that! **Please try it! Let me know if it did not work!**  I know what I am talking about because I deal with credit cards a lot, professionally, in IT.  The only sure thing is to ask for a PIN. But, alas, credit cards use a chip, so if I steall your card, I can buy with it with no problems. But not if I still your ATM card - I don't know your PIN. The PIN is in your head and I can't get it.  The credit card companies don't really care."

negative: What I do is that I set a small transaction to automatically go on the card and then set an autopayment.  Example for one card is a monthly $8 donation to the local animal humane society.  The autopay is set to pay in full.  *Solved - card stays active.  Some payers will cancel your credit card if they don't show activity.

negative: "Do not store credit cards on your servers! You will get into HUGE trouble if they get stolen.  Instead, the whole credit card transaction should be done in a ""frame"" on a web that is handle by a credit card processor you chose. Once the transaction is finished, you get a code for the credit card number (masked credit card number) that no-one can convert back to a credit card number (except the processor).  When you need to charge more or give refund, you use that code to tell the processor what credit card to make the charges/credits to."