Spend for the cause with affinity cards
By Amy E. Buttell • Bankrate.com

While new rules governing credit card disclosures are coming, they aren't in effect yet, making the process of deciding which credit card company will get your business as complicated as ever.

This is particularly true when pondering affinity cards, a type of credit card designed to benefit a charity or particular cause at no cost to you.

There's no doubt about it, giving money to your favorite charity, alma mater or association is important, especially when budgets are pinched by the financial crisis. But before you sign on the dotted line or submit the online application, take a few minutes to figure out whether you or your cause are getting the best deal.

Your desire to help a favorite cause shouldn't trump financial common sense, so don't sign up for a card with fees and interest rates higher than you could get elsewhere, or onerous terms, such as penalty rates and fees, double-cycle billing and other gotchas.

More importantly, if you're already struggling to pay your credit card bills, adding another card, even one that will benefit a cause near and dear to your heart, is a bad idea.

With that in mind, here are six questions to ask before getting a new affinity credit card. The best way to get these questions answered is to read a copy of the terms and credit card agreement for the particular card you're considering and/or pick up the phone and call the credit card company that issues the card.

1. What does my cause get out of it?
When posing this question, you want specifics. Most credit card companies that issue these cards offer vague answers, stating that your charity will get an unspecified payment for each person that signs up for the card as well as an ongoing percentage of what you spend. You want to know the upfront payment, usually a flat dollar amount, as well as the percentage, usually 1 percent or less, that your charity will receive.

Run the numbers: Think about how much you are likely to charge on this card and multiply that by the designated percentage. If you think you'll charge $5,000 a year and your charity gets 0.5 percent of that, it will receive $25, which is not a lot of money.

"What is so interesting about this from a consumer-behavior standpoint is that essentially what an affinity card is, whether it is a reward card or a charitable cause card, is a 1-percent-off rebate or 1-percent donation at best," says Andy Jolls of VideoCreditScore.com, a video Web site aimed at educating consumers on credit scores. "Consumers aren't generally impressed by a 1-percent-off sale, except for this type of credit card."

Sometimes the amount going to the cause can be large. According to a World Wildlife Fund spokesman, as of December 2007, his organization had raised more than $10 million during its 12-year relationship with JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Still, if you can find an affinity card that tickles your fancy and is at least competitive with, if not better than, a nonaffinity card, it can really pay off for you and the cause.

"It's a way for a consumer to donate to a cause at no additional cost to them," says Mark Levitt, senior director of creative services at CardPartner, an affinity credit card provider in New York. "It is truly supplemental revenue, found money for a cause, and it is a way for the consumer to contribute above and beyond writing a check."

2. What are the associated fees?
With the bank crisis and so many bank business lines under pressure, many banks are responding by raising fees on credit cards to beef up profitability. What is good for the banks isn't good for you as a consumer, so you don't want to hold an affinity card with a fee that will wipe out any benefit you get from rewards points or charitable donations.