Coalition to propose automatic charity donations at cash machines

[Pastaman]

I am astonished...First a 3 year pay freeze with redundancy on the horizon (BTW redundancy money unilaterally cut by two thirds). And now we need to be careful not to get conned at the cash point into giving monay away to causes our taxes should pay for in the first place. What a cheek.

automatic charities donations

[DJKillaQueen]

There's a difference between being given the option and being conned. After all, you have to answer a fair few questions anyway before you get any money.....one more option isn't going to hurt anyone.

It all depends on how it's done. If donate is an aditional option on the menu of services then fine. If it's a single question on it's own that you have to answer before getting to the menu of available options then I think many would see that as intrusive.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Given how many people ignore the "cash only" option, select "cash with receipt" and THEN IGNORE THE F***ING THING WHEN IT COMES OUT!!!, I suspect many people might well be wont to "donate"

But I don't have an objection in principle

[Brendan]

Ho did I know you were going to bring that up Sean.

[SeanMacGabhann]

As well as being a bugbear, in this case it has some relevance!

But yes, I should stop now

[Tarot]

Its not a good idea, I,d rather give money direct to my Charities,I dont trust banks at all, after the mess they

have caused to everyone dealing with them.

[Tarot]

I dont like coalition goverments either.

[SeanMacGabhann]

How are you going to give money to the charities and avoid banks tho Tarot? Are you going to walk in and personally hand over the cash?

And are the charities going to pile it under the mattress? I THINK they might use banks too

[Tarot]

Your right there Sean, never thought of that one. but I

monies that might be lying around for a year or something,

Or I could go direct and look out for charity shop workers with bad backs from lumpy mattresses.LOL.

[Twirly]

I wonder how much it will cost for the banks to change their software to accomodate this? I also wonder if the giving will be done as a gift aid donation, thereby allowing the tax to be claimed back by the charity? It being done through a bank, that should be easy, so there's no excuse for it not to happen. And how many charities will you be able to chose from? I also imagine that it will probably just be major ones, which could have a negative impact on smaller more local ones.

I don't mind if they do this, but it's not how I would chose to give. I give to a couple of charities each month, but it comes out of my account by direct debit at the start of each month, and I barely notice it. That's my preferred method at present. Previously, I've done matched giving through an employer which was great too.

But I guess that different methods will suit different people. If it appears on the menu when you chose your service (cash, cash with receipt, balance, etc.) then I wouldn't have a problem as I could ignore it, but if I put my PIN in and the first thing it does is ask me to donate to charity before I can do anything else, I'd find that really annoying after a while (probably 2nd or 3rd usage actually!) as I already have my giving sorted.

[Keef]

Off topic, but Sean, do you know what bothers me? When you select Cash Only, chose how much you want, and it then asks you if yo want a receipt. That's just making an angry man angrier!

[SeanMacGabhann]

Keef, brother, I'm with you

And there is you checking your phone or whatever waiting for the cash only to look up and see it's waiting for the confirmation

And STILL people say yes they want a receipt and then ignore it

Right, that's it, no more. From now on I'm going to get all John Marsden with these people

[ianr]

All that's said about it in the 35-page paper is:

The Colombian system of ATM giving allows customers to make a donation every time they withdraw money. We want banks and ATM providers to let us know how we might make this happen in the UK and whether there are ways we can facilitate this.

[DJKillaQueen]

The only thing that makes me angry at a cashpoint is when the letters OD follow the balance and it won't give me any money! ;-)