With Christmas just around the corner many consumers in the UK will be looking to buy charity based Christmas cards, which allow them to not only get the Christmas cards that they need for the festive season but also to give to a worthy cause without any real effort having to be put in.
However, a recent report has revealed that in many cases these Christmas card deals are not all that they are cracked up to be with many charities only getting a small percentage of the amount that is made on the cards.
Some retailers such as Next and House of Fraser are giving as little as 6 percent of the money made on these cards to the charity, with the remainder going to the retailer and the manufacturer. Many consumers assume that the majority of what they pay on these cards goes to the charitable cause, but the report shows that is clearly not the case, with charities in some cases receiving very little of the money that is paid for the cards.
However, there are also retailers that are offering a more generous amount of the money made on these cards to the charity in question, such as W H Smith, which offers at least 20 percent of the money made on these cards to the relevant charities, and in some cases offers the full 100 percent to the charity.
An official from the consumer campaign group Which? said that consumers should check to see how much of their money will go to charity. He said: ‘It’s great that charities earn so much money from High Street Christmas cards, but some donations are more generous than others. Check the back of the card to see how much of your money is actually going to charity.’