(hupo) As a massive human tragedy unfolds in Haiti, relief organizations are soliciting credit-card donations through their hotlines and websites. About 97 percent of these donations will actually make it to the designated organizations -- but the other 3 percent will be skimmed off by banks and credit card companies to cover their "transaction costs." Thanks to this hidden fee, American banks and credit card companies are making huge profits -- somewhere in the neighborhood of 0 million a year -- off of people's charitable donations, according to a Huffington Post analysis. Those profits rise sharply after major disasters, when humanitarian relief organizations such as Oxfam and Operation USA take in more than 85 percent of their donations via credit card -- and the credit card providers, with only a few exceptions, refuse to waive their fees.

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