Pennywise
Affinity Card
by: Sahil | last updated: November 04, 2009
Category: Premium Credit Cards | Tags: Afinity credit card, credit card types, credit cards
Category: Premium Credit Cards | Tags: Afinity credit card, credit card types, credit cards
An affinity card is a program that allows an organization or a company to offer special credit cards that is usable only in that company or organization. This means that any frequent customer who has an affinity for the product of that particular organizations product will get this card from the company.
The benefits that a consumer gets out of such cards are that they can avail of facilities such as cashback or discounted products of the company. This is especially true of the airline industry where a person can qualify for cashbacks and also for points that can be redeemed into travel miles.
These affinity cards are useful for the industries that supply them for advertising and marketing purposes. Not only do they perform the function of advertising, they also ensure customer retention. A consumer is made to feel special and at the same time gets some financial benefits out of using an Affinity card.
These types of cards have become common in countries such as United States of America and New Zealand. Affinity credit cards are provided by a lot of universities, alumni associations, sports teams, professional associations and increasingly by small and mid-sized nonprofits and membership-based factions that depend on these programs for additional income.
Its simple to distinguish an affinity card. It generally has the emblem of main credit card companies like Visa or MasterCard; however it will also possess the logo of the second organization involved. There are airline, university, gas, sports teams cards and numerous further types of affinity cards. Furthermore, the fact that a logo is on the card might motivate people to do additional business with that company than they would ordinarily do.
Affinity cards that have a university logo are often offered to college alumni. They might directly help, in small part, the university that offers the card. One more thing an affinity card with a college symbol can do is present discounts to college services or events. This would persuade alumni to preserve awareness in the college even after graduation, and maintain supporting it by attending special events the college holds, such as concerts or games.
Its important for many customers to conclude whether its advantageous to carry an affinity card. In a number of cases, these cards can be big deals and signify opportunities to save on funds on things a person would ordinarily buy anyway. Some credit cards with a double emblem will have first-rate interest rates and could have attractive perks. If the affinity card stand for dirt-cheap interest rates offered actually depends on each card.
As with any credit card offer, prospective borrowers ought to read all of the fine print to conclude if an affinity card is worth its value. Interest rates can intermittently be elevated, but higher rates could be counterbalanced by recurrent discounts or by the sense that the additional rate is in one way or another benefiting an institute that a person supports. Carrying cards with elevated interest rates makes little sense if a person will rarely take benefit of any discount offers and isnt concerned in profiting the co-sponsor of the card.
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