FEELING charitable this Christmas? Many of us do, especially when it comes to buying Christmas cards. Around a third of all Christmas cards make money for good causes. All in all, it's a massive £100m a year for charities and a huge contribution to funds.

But it could be even more.

Scrooge still rules, especially on the High Street.

If you buy your cards direct from charities or from some of the charity card shops, the charities get all the profit - generally around 81p in the pound.

But if you buy from some High Street retailers, charities will be lucky to get as much as 5p. Not even enough to buy Tiny Tim a mince pie.

We reckon anything less than 10 per cent - 30p on a £3 pack of cards, is a swizz and does more for the retailers' profits rather than the Christmas spirit. But we've been seeing what's on the cards.

ASDA

Between ten and 13 per cent to charities such as the British Red Cross. Flat rate 20p per pack, regardless of how much pack costs.

BOOTS

Ten per cent on their cards goes to cancer Research UK and Breast Cancer Care.

CLINTONS

Apart from charity shops, by far the best on the High Street: big selection, and all give 25 per cent to charity. Except for the Poppy Appeal cards, where the entire profit goes to the British Legion. A star among retailers.

JOHN LEWIS

The Charities Advisory Trust, which runs Card Aid shops every year, gave John Lewis a Scrooge Award. The stores have a huge range of cards, but most just gave 20-35p per pack - which on a pack costing £7.95, wasn't very generous and could sometimes work out at less than four per cent.

MARKS & SPENCER

Ten per cent to charities including the British Heart Foundation, Kidscape, Macmillan and Barnardo's.

NEXT

Next gives 25p per pack to charities including the British Heart Foundation, Macmillan, Barnardo's. The only cards we could find cost £2.99, so that works out at around eight per cent.

SAINSBURY'S

Ten per cent. Not much choice of cards, but money goes to Home Start and The Children's Society.

TESCO

Seven-and-a-half per cent. Not much choice that we could find. Thirty pence on a £3.97 pack goes to charities including Age Concern, Save the Children and Mencap.

WH SMITH

Five to ten per cent and tricky to know which is which. Charities include Save the Children, the British Heart Foundation and RSPCA, but you have to look very hard indeed at very small print to see if the donation is five or ten per cent.

WOOLWORTHS

Ten per cent. Sells cards from specific charities - Oxfam, the British Heart Foundation and others, so easier to choose which one you want to support. And gives 30p for each £3 pack.

ALDI

Twenty seven per cent. Makes a flat rate 50p payment, which works out very generously. BUT they only had very few packs of cards on sale.

BEST BUYS

1. CHARITY SHOPS, including CARD AID and CARDS FOR GOOD CAUSES (see below). The best way of ensuring that more of your money goes to charity.

2. CLINTONS, generally for their 25 per cent donation but especially for their British Legion Poppy Appeal, which gets 100 per cent.

3. ASDA. Not brilliant, but at 13 per cent, the best of the supermarkets.

CARDS FOR GOOD CAUSES

This sells cards on behalf of over 300 charities, generally in temporary shops in Tourist Information centres, libraries and churches. Because overheads are low, charities receive about 81p in the pound. Last year, Cards for Good Causes alone raised nearly £5m for its different charities. Shops are easily recognised by their jolly triangular Santa logo. This is where you will find them:

Barnard Castle, Tourist Information Centre; Bishop Auckland, Four Clocks Centre; Durham, Alington House Community Centre; Harrogate, Central Library; Leeming Bar, Tourist Information Centre at The Lodge; Leyburn, Tourist Information Centre; Newcastle, St Thomas', Haymarket; Northallerton, library; Richmond, Tourist Information Centre; Ripon, library; Scarborough, library; Thirsk, Tourist Information Centre; York, St Martin Le Grand, Coney Street.

You can also buy charity cards direct from Cards for Good Causes at www.goodcauses.co.uk

TALKING ABOUT CARDS...

YOU'RE not paying for your Christmas shopping on store cards are you? If so, it's the surest way to get a huge financial hangover in January.

It's so easy when you're charging round buying presents, spotting a party dress or some new shoes, and an assistant enticingly asks you if you'd like store card. Well don't take one.

In fact, think of the wicked White Witch in Narnia, who enticed poor Edmund with delicious Turkish Delight which made him sick and drew him into her power, and say NO.

Store cards still charge huge amounts of interest. Some of them - such as Top Shop, Dorothy Perkins, Bhs, Burton and Wallis - charge nearly 30 per cent, which is a ridiculous amount - especially when there are still credit cards which charge you no interest at all.

That 30 per cent doesn't buy you any more nice things, just adds to the already huge profits of big companies. You end up paying out great wodges of dosh each month, while your debt barely goes down at all. Even the better value cards - Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, Mothercare - have higher rates than most credit cards, even the credit cards that don't have free deals.

And there's no need for it. If you want to use a card there are still plenty of credit cards which offer you an interest-free period - try Abbey, Co-op, Halifax, Nationwide, Morgan Stanley, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Yorkshire Bank - all offering anything from three to nine months with no interest payments on purchases.

Which should be more than enough time to pay off your Christmas spending. And if it's not, well, maybe you're spending too much.

Now that's a novel way to avoid getting into debt - spending less.

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