Nick Ewen, director of content at The Points Guy, joined Cheddar News to talk about the best way to maximize benefactions from your credit cards for Giving Tuesday.

Nick Ewen, director of content at The Points Guy, joined Cheddar News to talk about the best way to maximize benefactions from your credit cards for Giving Tuesday. “These excess points can really go to a great cause so if you have an American Express card or a Chase card, I really encourage you to log into your account, investigate those redemption options and see if you can send some of those excess rewards to a worthy organization," Ewen said.

Donating Credit Card Points for Giving Tuesday

well today is giving Tuesday and a global day dedicated to giving something back, hopes to inspire millions around the world to give, collaborate and celebrate generosity. And do you know that there's an easy free way to do this by just using your credit card points? Well, some card assures allow members to redeem their rewards as donations to partner charities. And joining me now is nick you and director of content at the points. Guy. Nick, it's great to see you. Um, I love this and, and actually I didn't know about this, but it's such a timely segment because I think it might not be widely known that donating credit card points is an effective way to give back. How does it work? Well, each issuer has kind of a different approach, but you generally can do it online. It's very simple. And as you said, it's a great way that you can give back. Especially we have a lot of readers here at the points guy who are sitting on thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, or even over a million rewards from points that accumulated during the pandemic when they weren't traveling. These excess points can really go to a great cause. So if you have an american express card or a chase card, I really encourage you log into your account, investigate those redemption options and see if you can send some of those excess rewards to a worthy organization. Okay, so I know you mentioned a few issuers there, but for cardholders, what are some of the best credit cards that do assist in this process of giving back? Well, generally charitable donations don't classify as a traditional bonus category, like groceries or gas or restaurants. So you generally want to look for a credit card to use for your donations that have a high rate of return two miles, 2% cash back. Um, One of the best ones though is the chase freedom unlimited. You earn 1.5% back on every purchase you make. If you swipe the card, then the great thing is they have Limited time offer called pay yourself back where you can actually go and use your points to cover that expense at a higher rate than you would if you just got cash back. So it's essentially giving you 25% more value by donating the charity and then erasing that purchase using your accumulated rewards. Interesting. Now, what about tax deductions? How does that factor into this nick? Well, the first thing I will say is that I am not a certified accountant. So if you have questions about tax implications, you definitely want to talk to your tax professional. It does depend on exactly how the miles or how the points are valued by the individual currencies. So you definitely want to make sure if you do itemize your deductions that you talk to your accountant to make sure you know exactly what you can and can't do when you do put these miles or points to use in this fashion. Okay, so I see here, that's good advice for giving Tuesday. The points guy where you work partnering with United Airlines to support more than 50 participating charities. Nick. So we thank you as well here. Talk to me more about this initiative and some of these charities that will benefit. Yeah, this is a great thing we've done for a number of years here at the points guy. The key thing is, it's only for today. So if you are sitting on some United mileagePlus miles and you donate to one of the participating charities, United is going to be matching those donations mile for mile up to 100,000 miles per charity. But then you also have a chance to vote on your favorite charities. And the top three vote getters will each receive one million United miles And this runs the gamut from make a wish to Rainbow Railroad and even miles for migrants, which actually uses the miles that they receive as donations to help fly those facing persecution to safe ground. So it's a wonderful operation and a great organization to consider. So if you go to the points guy dot com, you can read all about it for this special initiative we have here for giving Tuesday with United Airlines. Very impressive nick And before we have to let you go, what else do people need to know about? Credit card Points rewards and giving back on this? Giving Tuesday. Well, one of the other things that I often recommend if you are sitting on some extra points, maybe you don't want to donate to a national charity, consider being really local. Think about someone who may be facing a hard time. Maybe you're able to use your points to book them a flight to go see a relative that they haven't seen in a long time. Or maybe a hotel room near a hospital where someone a loved one is undergoing treatment for some kind of terminal illness. So there are a lot of ways that you can look in your close circle of family and friends. And if you're sitting on some of those points and miles, you can often put them to good use for some of those people that can really use it right close to home. All right, nick you and Director of Content at the Points. Guy Nick. Thank you for sharing your story. And of course celebrating is giving Tuesday with us.