Charity Gift Card Gotchas
The holiday season is a time of giving to loved ones and often to charities. There's a new way to give to both—a charity gift card.
Here's how the cards work. You buy one from a charity network for as little as $10. Then the person you give it to can donate that money to the charity of their choice on the network's list.
But out partners at Consumer Reports Money Adviser warns that there are catches with those cards:
- They are generally non-refundable.
- Most charge fees just to buy the card. In fact, one $10 card had a $5 fee.
- And the charity networks that Consumer Reports checked out deduct 3 to 15 percent for administrative and other costs.
- Another problem: Many of those cards expire usually within a year. And any money that hasn't been donated just goes to the nonprofit that sold you the card.
Consumer Reports Money Adviser says it is better to write a check directly to the charity. Choose a charity whose cause you believe in and that steers as much money as possible to those in need. Some good places to check out charities are
www.CharityNavigator.org,
www.CharityWatch.org, and the Better Business Bureau at
www.bbb.org/us/charity/.
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