These days making charitable donations to your favourite non-profit organisations is easier than ever. You can call them or go online and make a credit card donation in just about any amount. It only takes minutes. That can be a part of the problem though. It’s also easier to make donations on impulse. And that means you might get sucked into a fraudulent charity’s plea for help more easily or you might not think to keep detailed records.

If you plan to make donations using your credit card this year, here are a few tips to keep in mind.

1. Research the charity carefully.

Never give a charitable organisation your credit card information just because you’ve stumbled across an ad or other plea (such as through your favourite social media site). Always research the organisation first. Keep an eye out for negative reviews or claims that something is a scam for example.

Also, if you want the donation to be tax deductible you have to make sure the organisation is a “deductible gift recipient” in the government’s eyes. You can do that through the government’s ABN Lookup tool where you can look up an entity based on their name or Australian Business Number (ABN).

2. Keep your credit card statements.

Under Australia’s tax laws, deductible gift recipients (or DGRs) aren’t required to give you a receipt for a cash donation. That means you should be vigilant about keeping your own records. For credit card donations, your credit card statement or other account records should be satisfactory.

3. Pay the donation balance off promptly.

If you want to donate to your favourite charity using your credit card, don’t carry that donation’s balance month-to-month. As far as your credit card company is concerned, it’s just another charge against your account. That means you can be charged interest on it if you don’t pay it off during your interest free days.

There’s no good reason to pay interest on a donation. You would be far better off waiting until you have the money available and then donating that extra amount to the charitable organisation instead of paying that same amount as interest.

Do you use your credit card to make charitable contributions? What kinds of records do you keep? Do you have any other credit card donation tips that could help other cardholders? If so, leave a comment and share them with us.