Have some upcoming charitable contributions I will be making. What is best way to maximize points/miles received on those dollars?
Is there a credit card that gives 2-5x points/miles for charitable contributions like many do on other categories of spend (like travel, gas, etc?)

See this thread for more info: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...nt-offers.html

I've never heard of a card that gives extra points/miles for charitable contributions.

American Express Membership Rewards has a tie-in with justgive.org . For a couple years it was possible to earn one bonus point per dollar on donations made through their co-branded site, but near as I can tell this has ended.

If you time it right, yes. The announced quarterly 2011 categories for the Chase Freedom card show a 5% point rebate for charitable donations for Q4 (Oct-Dec). The resulting Ultimate Rewards points can be redeemed for cash (1 point = 1 cent). Better, though: other Chase cards (e.g., Sapphire Preferred) have a better set of Ultimate Rewards options that includes transfers to

• Hyatt
• Priority Club (Intercontinental)
• Marriott
• British Airways
• Continental
• Amtrak

and you can move Chase Freedom UR points over to these other Chase UR programs at no cost, provided you have one of the relevant cards.

Priority Club & Marriott points are not worth 1c each to most people, but the other options are all easily worth more than that.

If you have a US Bank Flexperks Visa you can get 3X points for charitable contributions. Go to flexperkspromos.usbank.com, put in your Flexperks number and the last 4 digits of your FlexPerks credit card and click and then click on "Benefits" and you'll see the link to over 25,000 charities for which you will receive triple flex points for donations. An excellent opportunity for worthy causes.

beltway- Thanks! Great tip. I see Chase Freedom only pays 5% cashback on up to $1,500 spend per quarter. So that covers my first $1,500 charitable donations, but I plan to donate more so will need to continue searching for other ways.

upgrader- Thanks! Sounds perfect. I don't have a US Flexperks card and can't find any additional info on their website re the benefit for 3x points for charity benefit.
So I called customer service and asked them. The CSR initially knew nothing about 3x pts for charitable, but put me on hold to look into it. Came back to say yes, that appears to be the case for the FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature card. I asked if was a limit on that. She said not that she could see, although the card have an overall limit where pts drop to 1 pt for every $2 of spend greater than $120k a year (but that limit is waived if you have signed up for monthly bill autopay on the card). When I asked if they could send me the full details in writing so I could confirm, she forwarded me to Applications. The CSR there was not aware of the 3x pts for charitable and found nothing even after putting me on hold to look into it.
FYI- I also asked what best signup bonus I could get was and was told 15k after $500 spend- that was better than the website which says 10k.

So this could be the ideal card for me for this purpose, but I am hesitant to burn an credit pull for a US Bank card with 15k pt bonus when I have so many other cards lined up to apply for in next week with 50k+ bonuses (Citi AA biz, Chase Sapphire, Chase Marriott, etc)

Any add'l info you could provide on the terms which you can post using your access to the benefit details would be greatly appreciated. TIA.

greek2me, you need to have a FlexPerks card to access the promotions page and then "Benefits" because you have to put in your Flexperks membership # and your actual credit card number to do so. I just checked this with my numbers and, yes, the 3x for charitable donations is listed prominently on the Benefits page. Ask for a supervisor if you need reassurance but as of now the 3x for donations is in effect. PM me if you have additional questions. Don't know why the agents can't access the benefits page on their own promitions page on their website.

upgrader: Thanks for confirming the benefit using your card number.

I will get the FlexPerks credit card for this benefit. I estimate the value of a FlexPerk point as 1c if redeemed for cash equivs and say 1.75c if redeemed for airfare through their website, so this 3x equals a rebate of between 3-5.25c per $1 charitable donation on the card.

Only question is where in my application queue I will put this card versus the other big upfront bonus cards I want to get shortly as well!

I am new to the Chase Freedom card. I received an Ultimate Rewards program guide in the mail and noticed that beginning in October, charity is listed as one of the options for 5% cash back for that quarter. We are faithful tithers to our church and give monthly. I guess this would actually work right? That is, if our church accepts donations via cc and it doesn't exceed the $1500 quarterly limit.

I would suggest, just reduce the money you were to donate by 5%, and simply donate by cash.

The credit card processing charges and other middle-men charges would hit the church by about the same amount, if not more (Unless they are a large organization, and manage a lot funds).

You should also make sure that whatever way your church is using to process credit card payments actually gets coded as "charitable organizations" on your credit card statement. If your church is using an intermediary to process its credit card transactions, this transaction may very well end up being coded as "online services" and doesn't bring your any desired cashback.

That being said, I certainly support Thatsmynick in not putting burden of hefty credit card processing fees on your church. Think about creative win-win solutions - I know that suggestion below is not for everyone, but I personally found that in-kind transfers of appreciated stock is a truly mutually beneficial solution - the church doesn't pay any commissions while I get a tax-preferred treatment of otherwise costly capital gains.

As I sat making contributions with my new Chase card this morning, it occurred to me that Chase/Citi/Amex could do a good deed (and get some positive PR) by encouraging donations with double or triple points/miles. I for one would rather that than double points for gas or groceries, but that's just me.
So since FT is so powerful and monitored by all the credit card gurus, and since some of us are looking to meet spend requirements these days anyway...what do you think? The Ultimate Rewards Mall could even include a few charitable websites, particularly with so many natural disasters facing us.

Thanks for the referral to that thread...and I do agree that cash is preferable for the charities in general. That said, many national, large organizations boost their contribution incomes substantially via web giving, and that's what I was addressing. When I give to the USO or Red Cross or Humane Society, it's online via credit card. With church or a local animal shelter, etc., it's by check.

With Capital One, if you donate via their No Hassle Giving website, they don't charge transaction fees for the charity. Not quite the same as extra points for charity donations, but in essence it makes your gift go a bit further.

With US Bank's Flexperks card you can get 3X the actual dollar amount of a donation in flexpoints for charitible donations (via their web site only) to any charity on their quite extensive list of eligible entities. Are there other credit cards that give bonus points/miles for charitable donations and, if so, through what process? (e.g. have to go through their web site as with US Bank)