2024 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Charitable Donations

If you’re privileged enough to be in a position to give, there’s no need to feel ashamed about asking which card earns you some miles in return. After all, I’m sure a charity would prefer to get S$100 less an admin fee than nothing at all!

While the vast majority of banks exclude charitable donations from earning miles and points, there’s still a handful of options left. In this post, we’ll look at the cards that make giving more rewarding.

What MCC do charitable donations process under?

The MCC for charitable donations depends on the type of organisation you’re donating to. The two you’re most likely to encounter are:

• MCC 8398- Organisations, Charitable and Social Service
  • Examples: Giving.sg, Give.asia, Ray of Hope
• MCC 8661- Religious Organisations
  • Examples: giving to churches or temples

If you’re uncertain about the MCC, there’s three ways of looking it up before making a transaction:

Transactions under these MCCs receive preferential interchange rates (the fee charged for accepting credit cards). This helps charities save on administrative costs, but also means the transaction is less profitable for the card-issuing bank. Consequently, banks tend to exclude donations from earning rewards.

What cards earn points/miles on donations to charity?

After many years of nerfs, Maybank is the only card issuer which still awards points for charitable donations, along with selected American Express cards.

Bank	Awards Points for Charity?
Plat Charge, Centurion	✓
All other cards	✕
	✕
	✕
	✕
	✕
	✓
	✕
	✕
	✕

This means you can use the following cards to earn rewards on charitable donations.

Card	SGD	FCY
Maybank Manchester United Card Apply	2.0 mpd + 3% cashback  (on days where Man Utd win)
	0.4 mpd + 1% cashback (otherwise)
Maybank Visa Infinite Apply	1.2 mpd	2 mpd
AMEX Centurion Apply	0.98 mpd
AMEX Platinum Charge Apply	0.78 mpd
Maybank World Mastercard Apply	0.4 mpd	3.2 mpd^
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Apply	0.24 mpd	2.8 mpd*
^With min. spend of S$4,000 per calendar month. 2.8 mpd with min. spend of S$800 per calendar month. Otherwise 0.4 mpd *With min. spend of S$800 per calendar month, otherwise 0.4 mpd.

If your donations are made to local organisations, then the best you could do is the Maybank Visa Infinite at 1.2 mpd, or the Maybank Manchester United Card at 2 mpd (provided Manchester United win- so, basically no chance).

But if your giving is overseas, then the options become much better. The Maybank Horizon Visa Signature and Maybank World Mastercard will earn 2.8 mpd, provided you clock a minimum overall spend of S$800 per calendar month; and the latter goes as high as 3.2 mpd if you meet a minimum overall spend of S$4,000 per calendar month.

Wogi workaround

Wogi is a gift card retailer that it allows you to make donations to various charities such as Children’s Aid Society, Singapore Cancer Society and Food from the Heart. You can still claim tax deductions even if you send your gift via this channel.

Even better, all such purchases code as MCC 5947 Card, Gift Novelty or Souvenir Shops, which is eligible for up to 4 mpd with the following cards.

💳 Best Cards for Wogi (MCC 5947)
Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
Citi Rewards Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per s. month
DBS Woman’s World Card Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1.5K per c. month
HSBC Revolution Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1K per c. month
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply	4 mpd	Max S$1.1K per c. month
KrisFlyer UOB Apply	3 mpd	Min S$800 spend on SIA Group in a m. year required

Other ways to earn points on donations

Provider	Fee	Cost Per Mile
	2.6%	1.38-1.83 cents

At the moment, charitable donations are only supported by Citi PayAll. CardUp, SC EasyBill and AXS Pay+Earn do not offer such payments. 

Given a 2.6% admin fee and earn rates of 1.2-1.6 mpd, your cost per mile will be 1.63 to 2.17 cents. For most people, it won’t be worth paying the admin fee outside of a promotion, though there’s one ongoing now that reduces the cost per mile to 1.49 cents apiece. 

Conclusion

Even though it’s tricky to earn rewards for charitable donations, there’s still a few options left with American Express and Maybank. Alternatively, you can buy a gift card from Wogi, or opt to pay an admin fee to use a service like Citi PayAll.

It’s also worth noting that you can use charitable donations to meet the minimum spend for Citi welcome offers, even though these transactions won’t earn base points in and of themselves.