Haiti 90999– Giving credit where credit is due.

I typed “Haiti” and sent the text to 90999. Someone in Port au Prince with a pile of ten dollar bills must be watching his cell for my text so he can hand out the money to the hurting and hungry. What? That’s not the way it works? Naw. Normally, when I charge something to my phone bill, the cell phone carriers wait until they collect the money from me before they hand it over to the company I bought something from. That means that if my carrier processes my Haiti donation regularly, I would have to wait until my phone bill arrived in the mail, then write a check to the carrier, drop the check in the mail, have the postal service deliver it. And only after the cell phone company cashed my check would they send the money to the Red Cross. That billing cycle can take between 30 and 60 days – if there are no glitches and some of us use electronic payment. That is way, way too slow to help the people who are suffering.

But with this crisis, the cell phone carriers have abandoned business as usual. Now I am no real fan of cell phone companies – hey, who really is. But in this situation they have stepped up to the plate to expedite our donations to speed help to Haiti. In essence, they are going to float us all a loan help people survive. Instead of waiting for us to pay our bills, the major cell phone companies are sending the money immediately to the Red Cross. Through last week Verizon has transferred over $7.82M. AT&T has pledged to advance payment of the more than $10M that its customers have texted. And Sprint has agreed to advance 80% of the more than $3.1M its customers have given via mobile.

Sure, reading my cell phone bill is still like trying to decipher the Dead Sea Scrolls. But I am starting to feel like there really might be a heart behind that fine print.