Using a travel rewards credit card to give to your favorite charities is a great way to do good in the world and earn points and miles. With most cards, you will earn 1 point per dollar donated. Depending on how much you value those points, that could mean more than 2 cents value per dollar donated. I recently discovered, though, that you can do even better with the FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature credit card. With this card, you can earn 3 points per dollar when giving to charity! Even better, FlexPerks points can be worth as much as 2 cents each when used for travel. So, with this card, donate to charity and you can earn up to 6 cents per dollar in travel rewards! FlexPerks rewards works like this for travel rewards: Go through the FlexPerks rewards site to search for travel (using Travelocity’s search engine) and it will let you know how many points are needed for your flight, hotel, or travel package. For travel priced at $400 or less, you need 20,000 points; for $401 to $600, you need 30,000 points; for $601 to $800, you need 40,000 points; etc. You also get $25 credit towards airline fees (such as checked bags). I expect that there are other cards with charitable donation bonuses. Let me know if you find them! FYI, here are some of my favorite charities:
- Doctors Without Borders
- Habitat for Humanity
- Food Gatherers
Kiva (not technically a charity, but Kiva does great work by providing micro-loans to people around the world)
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