Help Pay the National Debt with Your Credit Card

Concerned about the sky-rocketing national debt? You are not alone. Tea party members, libertarians, and other fiscally conservative have long spoken out about the dangers of the out-of-control national deficit. Even Congress is finally showing reluctance about passing costly legislation measures that add more red ink to the national budget.

Well, for concerned citizens with a bit of cash to spare, there’s now a new way to address the issue: using credit cards to donate “gifts” online to reduce the public debt.

The United States Treasury recently introduced an online service, which enables Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover cardholders to make contributions to reduce the national debt via credit card donations. The option for making donations via checking or savings account contributions has been around since the 60s, but the choice to pay by credit cards as well is new.

One may hope that the added convenience of donating via credit cards may prompt more concerned citizens to donate. So far, Newsweek reports, the average mailed in donation is less than $1,000. Still, the total number of donations has climbed steadily over the past few years, from between $600,000 to $1.8 million during the early 2000s to over $2 million in 2009. Donations for 2010 are likely to surpass the 2009 record, already totaling $1.6 million over the first six months of the year, perhaps reflecting the public’s rising concern over the run-amok national deficit.

Still, with the U.S. National Debt at a staggering $13+ trillion, donations would have to increase by an order of magnitude to make any dent. Each taxpayer in the country would have to chip in about $118,500 to get rid of the debt. And, according to the U.S. National Debt Clock, the national debt is ticking upward at a rate of half a million dollars per minute. Interest payments alone are now hovering around $400 billion per year, about 18 cents of every dollar. With over 70 million baby boomers becoming eligible for Social Security and Medicare over the next decade, Uncle Sam’s financial outlook looks less than bright.

The U.S. is not the only country that encourages citizens to aid in debt payments. The National Bank of Greece recently established a “solidarity fund” to help with the financial crisis. The site reads, “National Bank of Greece is playing its part in supporting the Greek economy at this critical time. Accordingly, it now provides members of the public with the opportunity, should they so wish, to deposit money into the ‘Solidarity Account’ that has been set up to help pay off the nation’s public debt.”

In short, for people with money to spare, a solidarity fund to help Uncle Sam pay his bills might be considered a worthy philanthropic cause. However, for the millions of Americans struggling with unemployment and mounting levels of credit card debt, the idea is less likely to appeal.