Round-up: how 5 extra p could change the world

A new initiative has been launched that enables people to round up their transactions and give the difference to a charity  of their choice.

Round-up is described as a revolutionary facility, allowing customers to round up their electronic transactions. Every penny rounded up is pooled together and used to make a real difference wherever it is needed locally or internationally.

Round-up International is a UK registered charity and licences the round-up system to country operators – registered as charities in their individual countries. They then enable credit card companies and utility suppliers to offer the round-up facility to their customers.

The first operation was launched in Israel , involving Leumi Card – one of Israel’s leading credit card companies , with other countries joining up over the course of the next twelve months.

All the money donated goes to vetted high performance charities – rounded up amounts are not used to fund Round-up International or the country operators.  And it’s accountable – round-up tracks show how much has been collected and the big change that has been achieved.

The charity says that based on UK 2006 credit card figures – a round up of 5p on all credit and debit card transactions would have produced £300 million at a cost to the average card holder of just £2.16 for the year – less than  a cup of coffee.

Likewise in 2003 in the US, there were 31 billion credit and debit  card transactions at an average round up of 5 cents. That equals $1.55 billion. Replicated globally, it says, the potential is enormous. 

For more information go to www.round-up.org