Best Credit Card Affiliate Programs
A credit card affiliate program might not cross your mind at first when deciding to use affiliate marketing as means of monetizing your site or blog. But the truth is that there are a lot of such programs that pay great commissions, so if you run a blog in the personal finance niche, you should definitely consider becoming an affiliate.
In today’s article, we’re looking at some of the best credit card affiliate programs and specifying the rates and cookie lengths you can expect for each.
What is the best credit card affiliate program?
American Express Canada
This one is right at the top of our list simply because the American Express affiliate program has one of the top commission rates we have come across in this sense.
The company offers a rate of either $200 CAD or $150 USD for each qualifying lead, so it is one of the highest paying options you have available right now. The cookie does last for just 7 days, so it could have been a lot better. Still, we say that this one is worth giving a go simply because of the commission.
USAA Credit Cards
This one is managed through CJ Affiliate, so if you already use that affiliate platform, that’s one less thing to worry about. Such networks largely eliminate the hassle of individually applying to each and every affiliate program out there, which can be a challenge if you have several different niche sites.
Each referred sale can make you a commission of $20, which is relatively low compared to other credit card affiliate marketing programs listed in our selection.
As is the case with the American Express program, the cookie length of this one also lasts for just one week. Still, if you want a bit of variety and you’re looking to avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket, you may want to try it out.
Credit.com
We thought we might mention this one, but we will say from the beginning that the commission rates and tracking cookies depend on a number of factors, and the brand isn’t particularly straightforward in this sense.
The nice thing is that if you recommend this service, your audience can basically choose to get a card from any provider, whether Visa, MasterCard, Capital One, American Express, or Barclay.
The cards that the website offers are also very varied, so they are geared toward different categories. For example, they offer anything from student cards to cash cards, business cards, and airline miles cards.
Scotiabank Credit Cards
This Canadian company has a very long history since it was founded in the first half of the 19th century. The brand has a pretty neat credit and debit card affiliate program since they can pay up to $99 CAD per lead (about $72-73 USD or so).
The good thing about this option is that the cookie lasts for a whole month — a detail that you are likely to not find in too many of the names that we will mention in today’s article.
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Capital Bank
Currently known as Open Sky, Capital Bank was one of the safest and convenient options people had at their disposal. The bank is based in the New York area.
We’d say that the biggest reason to consider this affiliate program would be the fact that everything is managed through CJ Affiliate. If you are a seasoned marketer, you are likely to enjoy that, since the platform basically gives you access to all of the statistics you might need to better your performance.
Getting back to the Capital Bank/Open Sky affiliate program, you can earn as much as $25 per lead and the tracking cookie works for 30 days, which isn’t bad. We’d say that this one is worth considering for variety alone.
Avianca LifeMiles Credit Card
This one is another good example of a high-paying credit card affiliate program. The company can give you a commission of up to $200 per lead and the tracking cookie lasts for a whole month, so we have nothing but great things to say about it.
If your audience tends to travel a lot, this one should be right up their alley — especially since the brand has a plethora of offers for travel to lots of places, including exotic ones such as South America.
Upgrade Credit Card
We think that this one might be worth looking into if you care about personal finance in general and want to genuinely recommend excellent services to your blog readers.
And the reason we’re saying this is that Upgrade Credit Card makes it possible to get a credit line of up to $20,000, but without those hefty interest rates that you can expect from regular credit cards — the interest rates are similar to what you’d get when applying for a personal loan, so they’re more humane.
The affiliate program is pretty good, at least in our opinion, because you will be paid a fixed commission of $60 per lead and you have a tracking cookie lasting for 30 days at your disposal.
Indigo Platinum MasterCard
While we couldn’t find any specific information about the cookie length of the Indigo Platinum MasterCard affiliate program, we did find out that the commission rate you can expect for every lead is $35.
There’s not too much to further note about this one other than what we already noted other than the fact that it seems that this one is not managed through an affiliate network, so it could have been slightly better.
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Credit Assistance Network
This is one of the most unique programs that we have come across and the reason we’re saying that is that it does not function based on the traditional ‘pay per lead’ model. No, with this one, you can make a bit of money both through bringing the company leads, but also through actual sales.
If you manage to convince someone to use their service, you will be paid a commission of $95 per sale. For leads, the program pays you just $1.25, but the cookie does last for an entire year — which is much better than what you might get from most of the programs we’ve showcased here.
TransUnion
This one is somewhat different in that it is more geared toward people wanting to protect and improve their credit score as much as possible. So, if you’re in the finance niche, you shouldn’t have any difficulty recommending TransUnion services to your audience.
As for the affiliate program itself, we’d say that it’s pretty decent since the commission rate you can expect is $45 per sale; plus, the tracking cookie lasts for 45 days, which isn’t bad, either.
Experian
While they don’t sell credit cards per se, Experian do offer several interesting services in the finance sphere, such as credit monitoring, reports, and credit protection.
The brand’s services are now available in more than eighty different countries, so they are definitely worth looking into if you tend to have a global audience. Being an affiliate can get you a commission of $100 per each sale and a referral period lasting for one month and a half.
Credit Karma
This one has become quite popular in the past several years, especially since the service has helped many people repair their credit score and improve it significantly.
While you might think that the website is only aimed at people in that category, they also deal with reports and a variety of other services, and they also sell credit card services.
While it is worth noting here simply because more and more individuals have heard of the brand in recent years, the affiliate program really isn’t worth writing home about. It pays $.25 per sign-up and has a cookie length of 45 days, but the commission is downright preposterous. Even if the conversion is pretty good, you’re clearly not going to get rich recommending these services.
Read more: ClickFunnels Affiliate Program Review
Credit Repair
This one has been showing up on a variety of influencers’ accounts, including famous YouTube channels such as The Financial Diet. The company is by far one of the largest and best-known ones offering credit repair services in North America right now.
The affiliate program is probably worth considering since you can get paid up to $70 per qualifying sale. You also get the benefit of a 90-day cookie, which is considerably longer compared to what we’ve seen in some of its competitors.
BankAffiliates.com
While it’s not a program per se since it functions more like an affiliate network, BankAffiliates.com makes it super easy for you to apply to several different programs with as little hassle as possible.
We can’t give you specific commission rates or cookie durations for this reason, but we will say that you can use this platform to manage your earnings as an affiliate of various credit card companies, such as OptionsHouse, Lexington Law, Lendio, SmarterBank, Credit Sesame, or CreditRepair.com.
First Access
This is another credit card affiliate program that you should look into if you want fewer headaches. It works through FlexOffers.
One thing we do have to note with regard to the First Access program is that it’s clearly not going to help you become rich. You can earn just $14.50 per sale with this one, and the cookie lasts for the pretty much standard 30-day period we’ve come across in other programs.
First Progress Platinum
You can manage this program through FlexOffers, a network that we did a review of quite recently. As an affiliate, you can make upwards of $40 per sale and the cookie lasts for 30 days.
They do not work on a pay-per-lead model, so you are not going to receive any cash on people requesting quotes or anything in this vein.
Luxury Card
As one of the largest providers of premium credit cards in the world right now, Luxury Card has a more than decent affiliate program.
You can earn as much as $400 per every sale and the cookie lasts for 30 days, which isn’t bad, either. To make things even better, FlexOffers is the network they use right now — so if you already are a FlexOffers user, you will definitely enjoy this one.
Sam’s Club Credit Card
When you recommend these services to your audience, you’ll not only be able to make a bit of cash on the side, but you will also be doing them a favor. And the reason we’re saying this is that this credit card doesn’t even have an annual fee, so there’s no taxes or commissions that people might expect in this sense.
The affiliate program can be managed through FlexOffers and you can get paid as much as $67.50 per sale.
Petal Visa Card
The tracking cookie of this affiliate program remains a mystery since we couldn’t find any information on it. However, you can earn up to $36 per every qualifying sale, which is pretty good compared to some of the other options listed in this article.
We’d say that the services offered by the company speak more to people who’ve never had a credit card. Petal makes it possible for people to track their credit score and see how they can improve it so that later in their lives, they might be eligible for a mortgage or considerable loans.
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Final thoughts
There are quite a bit of other programs you should look into, such as the Chase credit card affiliate program, the Capital One affiliate program, or the CITI credit card affiliate program.
You should base your decision on choosing some of the right programs on factors such as the money you can make, but you should also consider how useful the services can be for prospective buyers.
If you make the mistake of suggesting your blog readers to get a credit card that comes with hefty fees, poor customer service, and high interest rates, they’ll lose their trust in you. Choose wisely so that everyone wins at the end of the day.
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Craig Campbell
I am a Glasgow based SEO expert who has been doing SEO for 22 years.
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