Did you know you can donate your credit card reward points to charity? Here’s how to do it | Mint

Credit card reward points are versatile. Most banks give you multiple options for redemption of reward points. One of the redemption options that many banks provide you to do is donate the reward points for charity. In this article, we will understand how you can donate your credit card reward points for charity and earn good karma.

Versatile nature of credit card reward points

Banks give credit cardholders various options to redeem their reward points. The choice of redemption options provides flexibility to the cardholder to redeem the points as per the need at the time of redemption. Some of the redemption options that most banks provide their credit cardholders include the following.

1. Booking flight tickets or hotel accommodation through the bank’s platform like HDFC Bank’s SmartBuy or ICICI Bank’s iShop portal.
2. Transferring credit card reward points to airline frequent flyer programs (FFPs) or hotel loyalty programs.
3. Purchase of gift cards
4. Purchase of merchandise
5. Payment of online transactions or offline transactions at Point of Sale (POS) devices
6. Cash/statement credit
7. Donation to charity

If you don’t wish to redeem the reward points for any of the above first six options, you can donate them to charity instead of letting them expire. Please note that credit card reward points from most banks have a validity period, usually of up to 36 months. In the case of some credit card issuers like American Express, the reward points don’t expire.

Instead of letting the points expire or keeping them unused, you can donate them to charity. Let us understand how.

Donating American Express reward points

American Express gives you the option of donating credit card reward points to charity. You will have to purchase a ‘Points for Good’ gift voucher by redeeming your reward points. To purchase the gift card, take the following steps:

• Visit the American Express website and log into your Dashboard
• Click on the ‘Rewards & Benefits’ link
• Under the ‘Redeem for INSTA Vouchers’ tab, click on ‘View all INSTA Vouchers’
• From the category dropdown list, select ‘Charity’.
• Click on the ‘Points for Good’ voucher link.
• You will be shown two options: a Rs. 1,000 voucher for 4,000 reward points and a Rs. 5,000 voucher for 20,000 reward points. You get a redemption value of Rs. 0.25 per reward point.
• Select the voucher denomination as per the number of reward points you wish to donate and proceed ahead with the transaction.

On transaction completion, the credit card reward points will be debited from your American Express credit card account. You will receive the ‘Points for Good’ voucher details through SMS and email.

(Source: American Express Website)

The above is the image of the Points for Good INSTA Voucher available on the American Express website for redemption of reward points.

Using the Points for Good voucher for donation to charity

Once you receive the voucher, you must visit the Points for Good website (www.pointsforgood.org) and take the following steps. 

1. On the homepage, click on the ‘Donate/Redeem’ button.
2. If you are donating for the first time through the ‘Points for Good’ website, you must register.
3. If already registered, log in using your mobile number or email id.
4. In your Dashboard, click on the ‘Redeem Voucher’ link
5. From the ‘Select Voucher’ dropdown list, select the American Express option. The dropdown will show you the list of various banks from where you can buy the ‘Points for Good’ voucher by redeeming credit card reward points.
6. Enter the Points for Good 16-digit voucher code and the 6-digit pin
7. Select the organisation to whom you wish to donate. For example, CRY, Save The Children, The Akanksha Foundation, etc.
8. Select the cause for which you want to donate. For example, education, nutrition, healthcare, etc.
9. Finally, select the project for which you want to donate
10. Click the ‘Proceed’ button. The voucher will be redeemed and the money will be transferred to the organisation that you selected for the project that you selected.

Benefit of donating through Points for Good

The good thing about donating through the Points for Good website is that it has multiple organisations listed in one place for donations. The donor can select an organisation of choice to whom they wish to donate from the list of organisations available. Within the organisation selected for donation, you can choose the cause or the project that you want to donate for as per your choice. So, you will have the satisfaction of donating to an organisation and cause/project of your choice.

Points for Good keeps a record of your past donations. You can log in to your Dashboard and click the ‘History’ link to check the record of your past donations.

(Source: Points for Good Website)

The above image shows the record of past donations. It gives you details like the name of the charity organisation, the cause, whether it is eligible for tax deduction under Section 80G, the amount, receipt, and how the donation was made (in this case, Points for Good gift voucher bought by redeeming credit card reward points).

Which banks allow the donation of reward points?

The Points for Good website lists many banks whose reward points can be donated through their website. Some of these banks include the following.

• American Express
• Canara Bank
• South Indian Bank
• Axis Bank
• Bank of India
• Central Bank of India
• HDFC Bank
• ICICI Bank
• IDBI Bank
• Indian Bank
• State Bank of India
• Standard Chartered
• Union Bank of India
• YES Bank

The above list has been sourced from the Points for Good website. To check the list, log in to the Points for Good Dashboard and click the ‘Loyalty Points’ tab and the ‘Select Loyalty Partner’ dropdown list. The above list may include the donation of debit card reward points from some banks along with credit card reward points. The list includes other loyalty programs besides banks like Advantage Club, Akkado, BI Worldwide, Loylty Rewardz, XoXo Day, Zillion, etc.

Credit card reward points donations can help you earn good karma

As explained earlier, credit card reward points can be used for various purposes. One of them is donating them to charity. A platform like Points for Good provides you an opportunity to donate your credit card reward points or other loyalty program rewards to charity. You can choose the organisation and the project/cause for which you want to donate. Thus, donating credit card reward points or other loyalty points can help you earn good karma.

Gopal Gidwani is a freelance personal finance content writer with 15+ years of experience. He can be reached at LinkedIn.