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What about these wonderful non-profit entities like PBS, Save the Children, the Red Cross, the ASPCA, and more?
How many people in the USA who contribute monthly to save the rescue dogs, elephants, sick children, and more know that the banks across America are in the pockets of companies organized and run solely for going to non-profits (the most seemingly heart-wrenching ones) and helping them to set up television ads to play on the heartstrings of the viewers? These companies, almost all from abroad (think Ghana and Nigeria), get the non-profits to encourage viewers to pay using monthly withdrawals from their checking accounts or using debit cards. These predatory companies, with the non-profit’s full approval, then pay the non-profits twenty times the monthly withdrawal amounts, or more, in a lump sum. Twenty dollars a month in promised and committed payments would mean an instant $480 to the non-profit. The viewer customer, unknowingly, is then charged by the purchasing company every month. The banks are involved because the banks will not cancel an ‘authorized’ monthly withdrawal without the company being paid, giving its approval. If the withdrawal is using the viewer’s bank account, the account must be shut down, and a new one opened, which most older people don’t want to do after having an account for many years.
It’s easier to shut off a debit card and have the bank issue a new one. It’s an annoying inconvenience, but much preferred to shutting an old checking account down. It’s easy to guess why some of the non-profits, getting advice from the predatory companies, want checking account data above all. Be aware, if you go to your bank where you’ve been a client ‘forever,’ and raise hell that you can’t control withdrawals from your own account, the bank may well investigate you for fraud. This is how you get dealt out of your account or worse, have it cancelled.
Should you stop giving charitable contributions? No, these kinds of monetary contributions are needed more than ever; the way you give them money should be severely limited and controlled. Lump sum payments of one-time only can still be made. You can return to do that again and not lose your bank account or the feeling that you are being scammed.
