19+ Best Credit Card Affiliate Programs To Promote
- my gen
- Sep 11, 2020
- 13 min read
Why are credit card affiliate programs one of the best things to join? We’ll talk about the best affiliate credit card program, how to become an affiliate, and what networks are out there. [sidenote: if you’d like to see other types of programs, check out the Best Affiliate Programs for Beginners]
Though the number of credit cards in an average American’s pocket has dropped in 2020, the total percentage of credit card users have gone up by 70% with 1.06 billion cards in circulation across the US.
According to Shift Processing, 60% of Americans think that America is going to be a cashless society. The American Bankers Association reported 364 million open credit accounts in the US as of the middle of 2019.
On the other hand, the affiliate marketing industry has seen explosive growth in the 2010s.
According to a source, the total affiliate industry marketing spend is anticipated to cross 8.2 billion dollar mark by 2022, nearly doubling up from what it was in 2017.
Table of Contents
Affiliate Methods Today
Today affiliate marketing is considered as one of the most effective and the easiest ways of making money online, to bring in sales and increase brand awareness passively.
It’s hassle-free as the affiliate neither has to create a product nor have to deal with the after-sales issues. Your job is to market the product in front of the right people at the right time.
There is no denying the fact that affiliate marketing is going to stay. So as the popularity of both credit cards and affiliate marketing is on the rise, this is the prime time to join a credit card affiliate program or network and start generating commissions.
[Sidenote: our absolute favorite program is actually a referral program. It’s the Chase Sapphire. This card pays the new credit card owner 60,000 points (that’s $600 cash or $750 if used for travel) when you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months! You get $150 for referring the deal. To be able to refer the Chase Sapphire, you first have to have the card.
This card was actually responsible for helping us get to go on a cruise for free].
How To Become A Credit Card Affiliate:
Though promoting credit cards is a competitive niche yet it offers generous commissions if a lead converts through your link. With rising demand, this niche still has room for new affiliate marketers.
As you are reading this post, we assume that you already have an audience that means
You either have an established blog of a specific niche with relatable content or
You know how to target the audience through paid methods (ads)
To get started with promoting a credit card you first have to find out the right credit card to promote to your audience. If you run a travel blog, your audience might be interested in a card offering flier miles. If you run a dropshipping store, marketing a cashback or reward credit card may be a good idea. Make sure whatever you promote your audience can relate with it.
The Affiliate Programs
Now most credit card companies or banks do not have direct affiliate programs. But if you are a customer of them, they have excellent referral programs, like the Chase Sapphire or the Capital One Quicksilver (both cards I use and also refer!) Typically you can join different credit card affiliate programs and networks which these banks/ companies have partnered with. Some offer their credit cards on multiple networks.
In this article, I have reviewed over 19 such networks and programs which you can join. Every program/ network has different eligibility requirements, commission structure and pros and cons.
So let’s go through the blog and find yourself the best credit card to promote.
What A Credit Card Affiliate Program Really Is?
It’s a way of partnering with credit card companies or banks. By acting as a third party you market their credit cards in front of the prospective clients which are your audience and earn a commission through the affiliate program when your referred visitor gets accepted for the credit card.
Some affiliate programs pay per lead i.e you get paid a small commission when your referred visitor fills a signup form. No matter if they qualify for the credit card or not.
What Is A Good Credit Card Affiliate Program?
There are certain factors which make an affiliate program to be good enough to join or not.
Lucrative Payouts:
Commissions vary with the credit card type and the audience it targets. The standard is $25 to $100. But it can be as high as $405 per accepted lead in case of The Luxury Credit Card.
Some affiliate networks like Credit Assistance Network have a pay per lead structure. For example, if someone has filled a form, you will be paid up to $1.25 even if they don’t qualify for the card.
The commissions are usually one time. To the best of my knowledge, no affiliate program pays recurring commissions for credit cards.
Lower Payment Threshold:
Affiliate programs with lower payment threshold are preferred. Though it is a factor to consider in the beginning only.
For example, if the program pays you $25 per referral and the minimum threshold for payout is $100. You have to wait till you earn $100 through 4 clients, only then a withdrawal request can proceed.
So the minimum the threshold the earlier you can get your hands on your money.
Provision Of Marketing Tools:
To make your life easier, most of the credit card affiliate programs provide you with marketing materials and tools. That may include,
Email swipe files to send to your lists
Creatives like infographics, images to embed on your website and educate your visitor about a certain credit card.
Different types of ads to display on your blogs or websites etc.
Educational tools like videos or courses to educate your audience to pick the best card for themselves
Affiliate Support:
Once you are accepted into the program an affiliate dashboard will be set up for you. From there you can track all the statistics like clicks, sign-ups, commissions earned and the status of the payouts.
Some affiliate programs provide you with a dedicated affiliate manager who can guide you about which card to promote according to your audience and what marketing tactics to follow.
Longer Cookie Duration:
When an interested customer visits a credit card website through your link, a cookie is released. If they didn’t buy the same day but come back later within the cookie period and make a purchase, you will be paid a commission.
That cookie duration for affiliate programs ranges anywhere from 7 days to a year. The longer the cookie period, the more chances of you making money.
Offer Credit Cards That Suits Your Audience:
Make sure the affiliate program offers credit cards which cover a wide range of audience and most importantly your website visitor must be interested in.
There are hundreds of credit cards waiting to be promoted. But your audience won’t be interested in every card. A travel blog can be paired with a card offering flier miles. Make sure whatever you promote your audience can relate with.
Credit Card Affiliate Program VS Credit Card Affiliate Network.
What is the difference between an affiliate program and affiliate network? This might be a little tricky. Let me explain
Credit Card Affiliate Programs are set up by individual credit card companies/ banks who want to get affiliates on board to help them bring clients who can buy their credit cards. The affiliates get a commission in return.
All credit cards companies have their own affiliate programs but most of them register themselves with one or more credit card affiliate networks to promote their programs.
For example to promote American Express credit card you need to join a network like Commission Soup or Flex Offers.
Credit Card Affiliate network, on the other hand, is a place were multiple credit card affiliate programs and affiliates come to find each other and start working together
An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between credit card affiliate and credit card affiliate program and takes a fee for being the middleman.
Affiliate Program: American express affiliate program, Open Sky affiliate program etc
Affiliate Networks: Commission Soup, Bank Rate Credit Card, Flex Offers etc.
Best Credit Card Affiliate Networks:
The Bank Rate Credit Card affiliate network has been in the field for the past 15 years and has collaborated with top credit card issuers like American Express, Capital One affiliate program, Chase, Citi, Discover and more.
Salient Features:
Free to enroll
Dedicated affiliate manager
Best credit card offers
Fast commission payouts
User-friendly affiliate reporting and tracking interface
Make promotion easy by providing creatives and other helpful in site tools like rate charts, banners, text ads to add to your content
Excellent customer service
The Commission Soup is a leading affiliate network having digital marketing of financial services as their core niche. Since 2000, they have helped this industry in online customer acquisition.
Like the Bank Rate Credit Card affiliate network, Commission Soup also provides you with an affiliate manager who will help you pick the best credit card for your audience.
This network has a larger assemblage of credit card advertisers. Some of those include
Capital One Affiliate Program – Open Sky Credit Card
American Express Credit Card
Indigo Credit Card
First Access Card
Milestone Credit Card
Total Visa Credit Card
Credit One Bank
First Premier Card
Flex Offers is a network that has collaborated with over 12000 publishers. Covering over 25 categories that include credit cards as well, it acts as an intermediary between you and the advertiser.
Currently, they only offer two credit card affiliate programs.
1- New Coast Direct Affiliate Program: suitable for people who want an affordable means of instantly buying new items for their home and office.
2- Barclay Card Affiliate Program: For travellers
Apart from offering credit card affiliate programs, this network also has affiliate offers for financial services, insurance, bank accounts, credit repair, and loan services.
Join the Bank Affiliates to find out which credit cards affiliate program do they offer.
Founded over 20 years ago, CJ affiliate is one of the most trusted and the oldest names in affiliate marketing. Their advertisers include large companies like CNN, Buzzfeed, Barnes and Noble and Wirecutter.
Currently, CJ affiliate network has collaboration with Credit Karma, Capital Bank (Open Sky) credit card and few others.
Sign Up here for CJ Affiliate Network to pick the best credit card to promote.
Offervault is unique in a way that its not an affiliate network on its own rather it is a collector of different affiliate offers.
Offervault is a reference tool to help you find offers to promote. If you would like to promote an offer that you find on Offervault, you must join the network that has the offer and get your affiliate links from them.
If you earn any commissions, you will get paid from each network, not from Offervault.
I searched for the term “credit cards” and 178 offers came up. Sign up here to find out the best offer for you.
Best Credit Cards Affiliate Programs
Amex- American Express – $200 per sale
American Express (or Amex for short) is one of the big three credit card companies, along with Visa and Mastercard. Having its operations worldwide American Express offers a wide range of credit cards suitable for all kinds of audiences. It even offers cards without an annual fee.
Types Of Credit Cards:
Business cards,
Travel cards
Cashback and
Reward cards.
Payout: up to $200 per sale
Cookie Period: 7 days
How To Join: Through Commission Junction
Indigo Platinum Mastercard – 5% Per Sale
Indigo Platinum MasterCard is made for people with bad credit scores and now want to improve it by building a positive payment history.
To promote this card your traffic sources will be evaluated by the affiliate network.
Best For: People who want to build their credit scores
Payout: 5% of the total sale
How To Join: Through Commission Soup
Capital Bank – Open Sky Credit Card – $25 per sale
Open Sky credit card is a secured card offered by the Capital bank from a separate domain.
The Capital Bank allows you to promote this card through email marketing as well.
Best For: To get this card no credit scoring is required. So technically anyone can apply for it. For this reason, it is one of the best affiliate programs to join despite its low payouts.
Payout: up to $25 per sale
Cookie Period: 30 days
How To Join: Through Commission Junction and Flex Offers
Experian – Up to $100 per sale
Experian offers a wide range of credit cards including secured card, cashback cards, rewards cards, credit cards for fair to bad credit history and offer low-interest rates for students.
Best For: All types of audiences including students
Payout: up to $100 per sale
Cookie Period: 45 days
How To Join: Reach out at affiliatesuk@experian.com. In the email don’t forget to mention the following details.
Your website URL
A brief description of your company
Monthly traffic levels
Most relevant credit card to promote to your audience
Your information will be reviewed and Experian will get back to you within two working days.
Petal Visa Card – $36
Petal’s credit card has high limits, no fees, low-interest rates, and gives customers cashback.
Best For: All types of audiences
Payout: up to $36 per sale
Cookie Period: 45 days
How To Join: Petal credit card is supported by the impact program or join through FlexOffers
USAA credit cards are offered for the US military and their members. Though the target audience for this credit card is very niche and commissions are not that high, yet it has low competition so there are more chances of making money.
Audience Type: US Military
Payout: Up to $25 per sale
How To Join: Through Commission Junction
Luxury Cards – $405 per sale
Luxury Card is a global leader in the premium credit card market. Accepted at over 8 million domestic retailers in 210 countries with no foreign transaction fee involved, Luxury Card members receive the best airfare and cashback redemption rates, with points that can be redeemed in any increment and never expire.
Best For: For wealthy people only
Payout: up to $405 per sale
Cookie Period: 30 days
How To Join: Through Commission Junction and Flex Offers
Scotia Bank Credit Cards – $70
The Scotiabank Credit Cards affiliate program offers a total of 12 different credit cards to promote, targeting a diverse demographic of customers. Affiliates can promote all or selected credit cards that best line up with their audience types.
Types of Credit Cards:
Cards for travellers
Cashback cards
Entertainment reward cards
Credit cards with low-interest rates or no annual fees
Credit cards for students
Best For: For all type of audiences
Payout: Flat $70 per sale
Cookie Period: 30 days
How To Join: Through Share Results
Upgrade Credit Cards – $60
Upgrade Credit Card is a recognized VISA credit card with a credit line of up to $20,000. It has no annual fee and offers lowest interest rates in the market with tariff being closer to personal loans. Thus it helps you to pay your outstanding card balance quickly.
Best For: For all type of audiences
Payout: Up to $60 per sale
Cookie Period: 30 days
How To Join: Through Commission Junction
The Avianca LifeMiles credit card is one of the highly recommended cards for people who have the travel bug in them. Apart from flier miles you get protection against unauthorized charges and cover for damage in auto collisions and travel accident insurance.
Best For: Frequent international travellers
Payout: Up to $200 per sale – 2nd highest paying affiliate program
Cookie Period: 30 days
How To Join: Through Commission Junction
The First Progress Mastercard is a full-featured secured credit card with a credit line based on a refundable security deposit instead of your credit score.
Best For: those with poor credit history and now want to improve it.
How To Join: Through Commission Soup
Milestone Gold Credit Card – $35
The Milestone card enables you to enjoy the benefits of a Mastercard without the need for a security deposit.
Best For: those with less than perfect credit
Payout: Up to $35 per sale
How To Join: Through Commission Soup
Sam’s Club Credit Card – $67.50
Sam’s Club credit card allows customers to earn up to 5 percent cashback on purchases.
The credit card does not have an annual fee and the affiliate program is free to join.
Best For: those with less than perfect credit
Payout: Up to $67.5 per sale
How To Join: Through FlexOffers
The First Access Card is a true VISA® credit card that does not require perfect credit for approval.
Best For: People with varying degrees of credit scores. Those with bad credit can easily get accepted over here.
Payout: Up to $16 per sale
How To Join: Through Commission Soup or Flex Offers
This is a great program, and the way to sign up for the Capital One affiliate program is to be a customer! It makes sense. They require you to be a customer in good standing before you can refer the card. (Sign up for the Capital One Quicksilver Card).
Best For: Credit card users with excellent credit.
Payout: Get paid $100 per referral (up to $500 per year).
How To Join: You must already have the Capital One Credit Card before you can join this affiliate referral program, but it’s one of the best Capital One affiliate programs. Apply for it here (this is my link and you’ll also receive $150 in cash when you spend $500 in the first 90 days).
How To Promote A Credit Card As An Affiliate:
Remember getting organic traffic to your affiliate link is hard. It is the game of how much value you can provide to others. Try to establish yourself as an authority in the field and people will start listening to you and thus following your advice.
Some strategies to use as a credit card affiliate are.
Write an email sequence educating about the card you want to promote and send to your list. Use free Chrome extensions like Streak to track your emails.
Set up a blog and create valuable content related to credit cards. Educate your audience to help make smart financial decisions.
Add your preferred cards to the resource section of your blog.
Join Facebook groups related to credit cards and financial education and promote your content over there.
Twitter is loud and is a heaven for affiliate marketers. Join it, follow influencers of the credit card niche and initiate valuable threads.
If a credit card affiliate program allows, run paid ads.
Only promote attractive credit card offers (like the Chase Sapphire and Capital One QuickSilver that I also personally use).
Wrapping It Up:
Throughout my above discussion of credit card affiliate programs, you must have noticed that there’s no such thing as the “best” credit card to promote i.e. reward cards will suit one audience, while travel cards will suit another.
And you don’t have to be an investor or a financial advisor to promote a credit card. A little knowledge and the willingness to promote the card is required.
So keeping the above information in mind, do your due diligence, join any credit card affiliate program which suits you the best, provide value to your audience and start making money online.
And if you’d like to look at other options of making money, have a look at “How to make 200 dollars in one day.”
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