2023 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Charitable Donations

Giving is its own reward? Well...yes, but all the better if you can earn some miles in the process! Here's the cards which still reward 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, from the charity’s point of view, getting S$100 less an admin fee is better than no donation at all!

❓ How much admin fees do charities pay?
Giving.sg partially reinstated transactions fees from 1 April 2022, after suspending them for two years due to COVID-19. The fee is now 1.8% (versus 3% pre-COVID). 

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’s the Best Card for…
❓ Overall Guide
✈️ Air Tickets
🌎 Amaze 💗 Charity
🍽️ Dining
🏫 Education🥡 Food Delivery
🏨 Hotels☂️ Insurance
📱 Kris+
⚕️ Medical🏖️ OverseasPetrol
🚍 Public Transport🛒 Supermarkets🚰 Utilities

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

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.

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

MethodEase of UseReliability
HeyMax●●●
📱 Instarem app●●●●
🤖 DBS digibot
●●●

What cards earn points/miles on donations to charity?

At the time of writing, Maybank is the only card issuer which still awards points for charitable donations, along with selected American Express cards.

BankAwards Points for Charity?
Platinum Charge, Centurion
All other cards

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

CardEarn Rate
Maybank Manchester United Card
2.0 mpd + 3% cashback 
(on days where Man Utd win)
0.4 mpd + 1% cashback
(otherwise)
Maybank Visa Infinite1.2 mpd
amex centurionAMEX Centurion0.98 mpd
AMEX Platinum Charge0.78 mpd
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature
0.24 mpd if SGD
2.8 mpd if FCY

Cashback alternatives would include the UOB Absolute Cashback Card (1.7% cashback) or AMEX True Cashback Card (1.5% cashback)- but this assumes that AMEX is accepted. 

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)

CardEarn RateRemarks
Citi Rewards
Apply
4 mpdMax S$1K per s. month
DBS Woman’s World Card
Apply
4 mpdMax S$1.5K per c. month
HSBC Revolution
Apply
4 mpdMax S$1K per c. month
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa
Apply
4 mpdMax S$1.1K per c. month
KrisFlyer UOB
Apply
3 mpdMin S$800 spend on SIA Group in a membership year required

Other ways to earn points on donations

ProviderFeeCost Per Mile
2.2%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 2.2% admin fee and earn rates of 1.2-1.6 mpd, your cost per mile will be 1.38-1.83 cents. Is it worth paying the admin fee? It all depends on how much you value miles, but the price can get even better during one of Citi PayAll’s periodic promotoins.

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 a small admin fee to use a service like Citi PayAll.

So continue giving to the extent you can, and let that be all the more rewarding for you!

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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Ah Seng

I can confirm a plain vanilla donation on http://www.giving.sg does not get points for Citi Premiermiles card. Donated last month

JJ

Workaround for Community Chest Donations with tax deduction using GPMC: Donate via their website (https://www.comchest.sg/) and select Paypal as the payment method (GPMC is rejected when using the credit card payment method). Grabpay points are also awarded.

Anon

Can confirm SCB X card gives points for one-off donations via giving.sg, as well as church online tithing.

Steve

Works for Maybank F&F card too

J

Hi, has anyone tried and confirmed the Lazada workaround with the OCBC Titanium and Citi Rewards cards?

anon

I just made a donation to giving.sg via grabpay mastercard. It went through and I earned points for it. I’m not sure if it worked because I already had the money in my grabpay wallet (did not need to pull from a card).

anon

I’m so sorry for the wrong info!! Grab worked for give.asia but not giving.sg 🙁

Anthea

Anybody tried the Lazada workaround?

Heiji

Just tried paying GiveAsia with GrabPay Card. It get declined and contacted CS said like below.

Thank you for your details. As per our terms & conditions, GrabPay wallet cannot be used for political, religious, spiritual, charitable and non-profit organizations of any kind. https://www.grab.com/sg/terms-policies/payment-rewards/

Glen

Do we know if Maybank platinum visa can get Cashback for donations to overseas charities?

Girl Eat World

Successfully donated and earned miles on the Amex krisflyer. an interesting thing to note is that Amex doesnt charge extra 1% for the benevity platform, unlike Visa.

Girl Eat World

Successfully donated via Amex krisflyer and earned 1.1 mpd. Interesting thing to note is that Amex doesnt seem to charge the extra 1% charged by Benevity donation platform. I donated with visa last week and got charged 1% extra

Wei

Need to update/ delete the section on using Amex/ UOB Absolute card to top-up GrabPay.

Max_Heng

AMEX Krisflyer Card –
Exclusions: Transactions relating to education and other non-profit purposes (including charitable
donations) (with effect from 1 October 2023)

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