3 Things You Must NOT Do When Donating A Car

It’s a great feeling when you’re donating a car to charity – you have the plus points of getting rid of your old junk or precious car (depends on your attachment to it!) without a sale headache and someone gets a “new” car!

But there are certain things you must know before giving your clunker away and getting that tax rebate you have been eyeing at.

1. Do NOT donate your car to just any charity.

Research well for a genuine charity - do the work and ask around – colleagues, friends, and neighbors - for a great charity that is the ‘real deal’. Spend some hours in cyberspace for a charitable organization that is registered and has good online value. If the normal charities you have been associated with do not handle car donations, then ask them for some good suggestions but no matter which one you pick, do the homework before committing to giving away your used car.

Reputations count.

Better business bureau and charity navigator are two sites that can help you lead to a smart and well—meaning choice.

2. Do NOT go down the third-party route.

Your intentions behind donating a car are noble and you mean the concerned charity to benefit from the proceeds.
Right?

Except that when you take the help of a third party organization who are aggressive advertisers (more often than not) and their sole intention is to keep at least half (and sometimes even up to 90%) of the car amount in their pockets while the charity gets peanuts.

This is so not what I would want – I am sure you don’t either!

The smart thing for you to do here would be get in touch with the charity you prefer and simply ask them if they accept used car donations or not.

What’s the point of donating a car if somebody undeserving gets the money and all you get is an empty feeling of satisfaction?

3. Do NOT give away your car without working out the math involved.

Okay, so you just have to take up the help of an intermediary organization.

Maybe you are just too busy to work out all the hassles of donating a car or maybe you are just convinced that’s the way to go about it.

No issues there – just do the math at least!

Ask the organization all the questions you may and should have about the car proceeds –

• What percentage will they be getting?
• How are they going to divide the car money and their own profit?
• What is the total amount charity may get in the end?
• What’s my tax deduction going to be?

Trust your gut and if you have any nagging doubts about the authenticity of their claims – you know what to do – switch over to a smarter and genuine option.