Credit Cards for Causes and charities
Charity affinity cards are a way of showing support for a cause or charity by using a credit card. In effect affinity cards are cash back cards, but the cash goes back to a cause.
Affinity cards have been in use for a long time, and gained a large degree of popularity in the 1980s. Credit card providers found that marketing costs for credit cards were high due to the amount of competition. However when they marketed credit cards branded with the insignia of a large charity to the charity’s registered donors to they found that the costs per successful application were far lower. In return they would offer the charity a percentage of each transaction made with the card. In effect a supporter could donate hundreds of dollars a year simply by using the charity branded credit card for normal spending. MBNA was the first provider that offered these schemes in large numbers.
Political parties soon started offering affinity cards to their registered donors and activists, with a similarly high take up. In recent years this has been replicated by large pressure groups, trade unions and other professional groups.
Smaller charities and causes have often grouped together with other charities to have a single credit card to justify the promotion costs. These have tended to have a poorer take up than the single charity cards due to the lack of a coherent brand. However recently the size of an organisation that can effectively run an affiliate card on its own has reduced significantly due to the competition for affiliate credit card offerings and new technology. This has reversed what had been a previous decline in affinity offers to small companies, which was highlighted when Bank of America took over MBNA and started retiring many of the smaller affinity programs that it had taken on.
As well as charities and political causes, affinity cards are offered by alumni associations, professional groups, universities and professional sports teams. Some automobile brands such as the mini cooper have offered their own affinity brands, and it is likely that many other iconic but profit making brands will move into affinity credit cards in the future.
One accusation made towards credit providers is that the real value of an affinity card customer is the ability to cross market other products using the information they obtain from the affinity card.
Credit Cards for Causes and charities
Charity affinity cards are a way of showing support for a cause or charity by using a credit card. In effect affinity cards are cash back cards, but the cash goes back to a cause.
Affinity cards have been in use for a long time, and gained a large degree of popularity in the 1980s. Credit card providers found that marketing costs for credit cards were high due to the amount of competition. However when they marketed credit cards branded with the insignia of a large charity to the charity’s registered donors to they found that the costs per successful application were far lower. In return they would offer the charity a percentage of each transaction made with the card. In effect a supporter could donate hundreds of dollars a year simply by using the charity branded credit card for normal spending. MBNA was the first provider that offered these schemes in large numbers.
Political parties soon started offering affinity cards to their registered donors and activists, with a similarly high take up. In recent years this has been replicated by large pressure groups, trade unions and other professional groups.
Smaller charities and causes have often grouped together with other charities to have a single credit card to justify the promotion costs. These have tended to have a poorer take up than the single charity cards due to the lack of a coherent brand. However recently the size of an organisation that can effectively run an affiliate card on its own has reduced significantly due to the competition for affiliate credit card offerings and new technology. This has reversed what had been a previous decline in affinity offers to small companies, which was highlighted when Bank of America took over MBNA and started retiring many of the smaller affinity programs that it had taken on.
As well as charities and political causes, affinity cards are offered by alumni associations, professional groups, universities and professional sports teams. Some automobile brands such as the mini cooper have offered their own affinity brands, and it is likely that many other iconic but profit making brands will move into affinity credit cards in the future.
One accusation made towards credit providers is that the real value of an affinity card customer is the ability to cross market other products using the information they obtain from the affinity card.