Lloyds Bank pulls out of charity credit card market The company has been offering these cards for over 23 years, but has written to customers informing them that their charity cards will be replaced by standard credit cards that do not offer a charity donation. The charities hit by the withdrawal include Cancer Research UK, which has received over £15m from the credit cards. as well as the NSPCC and the Scottish SPCA. Lloyds said it had offered to help each charity find a new issuer "should that be the route they wish to pursue in the future." Charity credit cards, which are still offered by other providers such as MBNA and the Cooperative Bank, work by donating a small percentage of the amount spent on them to charity. Typically the charity also receives a larger amount th first time that the card is used. For example, the Co-operative bank's Action Aid Credit Card donates £15 for every account opened, then a further £2.50 if the card is used within 6 months. It then donates 25p (0.25pc) for every £100 spent on the card and 25p for every £100 transferred to the card. The Virgin Charity Credit Card (which lets you choose from over 2,500 charities) donates 0.8pc cashback, which is topped up to 1pc if you sign up for Gift Aid) on all spend. The Lloyds cards typically made a one-off donation of around £20 the first time they were used and then a continuing cashback payment of between 0.25pc and 0.5pc on spending. A spokesman for Lloyds said that the the cards were held by fewer than one per cent of its customers. Following a recent review, which noted the limited demand for charity cards in recent years, we have decided that we will no longer offer a charity credit card. We remain committed to charitable giving and will work to support Cancer Research UK, NSPCC and the Scottish SPCA in any way we can in the future. David Black, banking analyst from financial analysis group Defaqto, said that the cards were often a poor deal, and that charities would offer be better off if you chose to support them in other ways. "I can't help thinking that both you and the charity would get a better deal if you chose the most competitive credit card available from the entire credit card market - so for example the one with the longest 0pc introductory deal if that's what you're after - and then make a donation to the charity separately," he said. He added that the longest 0pc introductory deal on charity cards was just six months, compared to 18 months in the rest of the market, while the lowest APR for a charity card is 12.9pc compared with 6.9pc overall.