I want you to stop donating to good causes - by using a charity credit card.

I’m not being mean, I know as well as anyone that charities need all the help they can get these days, as donations dry up.

Yet the reason I say get rid of your charity credit card is that they give only a paltry amount to the charity itself. But there’s a way to give more to charity that won’t cost you a penny more. In fact, it’s possible to increase the donation tenfold or more.

Charity cards are poor value Typically, for every hundred pounds you spend, the charity gets just 25p.

So, if you spent £1,000, it just gets £2.50. Contrast that with the best cashback credit cards on the market, and you can get £5 per £100 of spending.

In addition, your donation qualifies for ‘Gift Aid’, which boosts the donation by up to 50%, when you donate yourself, but not when it’s through a charity credit card. In my view, it’s an absolute no-brainer that you should ditch these cards.

Hideous scam Excuse me if I have a wee rant. In many ways charity cards are a hideous scam. They sell us poor value credit cards on the pretence that we are doing something good and worthwhile.

Yet it’s more profit for the bank, and a very limited gain for the charity.

The one good bit is when you sign up for one of these cards, the charity normally receives a worthwhile lump sum of between £5 and £25.

If you really wanted to make the most of them, the best way would be to sign up for a several charity credit cards to get the money. Use them once to make sure the charity gets its money, and then cancel ‘em afterwards.

Be careful, though. Every application for a credit card gets recorded on your credit file, so if you make a few of them it can affect your credit score. Those people who are going to need credit for other things shouldn’t do it.

But if you’ve no immediate plans to borrow money or change your mortgage, if you’ve got a good credit score, it isn’t a problem applying for one or two.

If you’re going to do it, it’s worth focusing on those where the charities get more, the NSPCC, Cancer Research UK and Shelter all earn £20.