JustGive.org - not sure what to think

[hoosierdoc]

I have used them to do donations to charities before when I was trying to get it in before the end of the tax year. I just tried to do a donation to two charities and saw them try to add a 5% donation to themselves without asking. It was auto-added on the confirmation page before finalizing. I had to edit the cart to remove their donation.

I clicked the box saying "I want to cover the credit processing fee" and basically donate the full amount. Then I saw what they charge, and it was 4.5%! It's absurd to charge a 4.5% processing fee for online credit card use. I'm guessing they are paying 2% or less for their credit transaction which means they are taking over 2% of the donation for themselves as a pass-through.

The auto-donate to their website was irritating, the 4.5% processing fee means I'll just send a check to each organization and be done with it even though it's less convenient.

anyone else run across this? Am I wrong or does it leave a bad taste in your mouth?

 

[RedneckReject]

It would kind of irk me as well. Mostly because of the fact that a lot of people would be unaware that they were charging a percentage of the donation. I'm well aware that businesses need to charge some sort of fee at time so that they can stay in business. It just seems a little sneaky in this case. Then again, I haven't donated anything through them so I can't say from personal experience. I just feel like things like that should be made known up front.

 

[hoosierdoc]

Yeah, I get the fees are needed for convenience charge and to keep the site functioning. The auto-donate addition thing set me off and then I stayed mad at the 4.5%.