Credit Cards for Causes and charities

November 30, 2009

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. read more…