2024 Edition: Best Credit Cards for Charitable Donations

While most cards exclude charitable donations, there's still a couple that offer rewards- as well as some workarounds.

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!

โ“ 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.

๐Ÿ’ณ What’s the Best Card for…
โ“ Overall Guide
โœˆ๏ธ Air Tickets
๐ŸŒŽ Amaze  ๐Ÿš— Car Rental
๐Ÿ’— Charity ๐Ÿฝ๏ธ Dining
๐Ÿซ Education
๐Ÿฅก Food Delivery ๐Ÿจ Hotels โ˜‚๏ธ Insurance
๐Ÿ“ฑ Kris+ โš•๏ธ Medical ๐Ÿ–๏ธ Overseas
โ›ฝ Petrol ๐Ÿš Public Transport ๐Ÿ›’ Supermarkets
๐Ÿšฐ Utilities ๐Ÿ’’ Weddings  

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:

Method Ease of Use Reliability
โ“HeyMax โ—โ—โ— โ—
๐Ÿ“ฑ Instarem app โ—โ— โ—โ—
๐Ÿค– DBS digibot โ—
โ—โ—โ—

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 โœ“
All other cards โœ•
โœ•
โœ•
โœ•
โœ•
โœ“
โœ•
โœ•
โœ•

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 centurionAMEX 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.

๐Ÿ’ณ 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.

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 ๐Ÿ™

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)

Lincoln

TrueCashBack Amex – 1.5% Cashback on Charities spends