Minos

I am pretty sure this will stir-up quite some debate here...

Anyway, thinking about the US Airways example which allows anyone with a US Airways credit card to refer friends to earn some bonus miles (which in this case is a very bad value for the prospective customer) , I kept wondering about those affiliate networks and their place in the food-chain.

In fact the bloggers are actually acting as middlemen in between the credit card companies and the end customers. Being middlemen, they earn hefty commissions on each application. A cost to the bank that is ultimately passed to the customer.

I was wondering if it could be argued that bloggers are in fact eating a part of the bonuses that end-customers would otherwise get.

Better said, could a bank be convinced to offer non-referral earning links to their credit-card applications in exchange for greater bonuses. After all, we don't need no middlemen to introduce us to Chase, Citi and the like?

Makes sense

Minos

OverThereTooMuch

That money wouldn't go to us. They'd waste as much or more on other forms of advertising.

FAllWay

I nvr used card referrals.
99% of them dont deserve it

raghu455

Current state of affairs:: I don't mind affiliate links if they explicitly stated how much they pay out to the bloggers so that users can see full disclosure on just how much a blogger is making by also providing stats on number of approvals and such.
That way if some really good blogger is getting a lot less then we could give some apps to that blogger to help him if he provides a good value.
Most bloggers are in it for the money but they still provide good values which can be difficult to obtain. As long as it is the best offer out there I don't mind giving a good blogger like frequent miler for eg some of my referrals.

If higher bonuses for direct apps existed: this would wipe out most of a blogger's income and only casual blog readers would apply using bloggers link if the blogger does not provide the link to the better offer which would be cheating in a way. From chase's perspective, the amount they pay bloggers is very low and they will make up for most of it through swipe fees. Plus they get tons of free marketing for their offers. So it makes business sense for chase to give a small $100-150 fee for acquiring a card member who may spend a lot of money using their cards. More than this it is the huge marketing of these offers all over the blogs that that trigger a lot more customers which is why they give these referrals. So it is a cycle that pays the bloggers if they can sign up new card members. If they gave a special higher bonus then no one would use blogger links and no one would advertise their offers thus losing lot of free marketing.

DFWsakp

As long as a blogger is willing to disclose how much money he is making per application, I don't mind using his link. The ones who don't disclose, I just don't use their link. Most times I end up using the link on the CC website. One thing the CC companies are soon going to realize is that most of the people applying for CC thru the bloggers links are the ones who are churning the cards for bonuses and are going to stop using or cancel the card once they earn the bonus. Most of these people are not here for the long term. If a CC company is offering 50,000 points which is almost 500$ for 2500$ spend, then they are surely making a big loss.

Minos

Even if non-referral links existed alongside referral links, I am pretty sure some of the bloggers / middlemen would still get referrals because:

- there are some customers who will sponsor a blogger as a "thank you" gesture because they are actually doing the homework for them. Just look at the positive comments in the comment sections of some of the blogs: many readers just approve the perpetual pitch of Milevalue credit cards because they believe Milevalue is discovering something for them...

- some bloggers / middle-men would simply not advertise the higher bonus application links just as some do right now. There are some interesting credit cards that are completely absent from blogs because the bank does not pay at all or does not pay enough to warrant being on prime blog real estate.

Arbitrage exists everywhere. Lack of complete information is one reason.
So I do not believe that one option preclude the other. This is very similar to many of the cashback websites. Some sites are consistently paying more than others. It does not mean the less-paying ones disappear.

Minos

Scottrick

Banks already offer their own links, as do many of the airlines, hotels, etc. that have co-branded cards. From my observation, most affiliate offers are equal or even better, but there are exceptions.

Citi is more likely to have superior offers on their own site, especially for their ThankYou products. When I remarked to one person (who should know) how difficult it is to promote an offer that is inferior to offers on the bank's own site, I was told that the offers provided via affiliate channels and those provided by the bank itself are managed separately. Chase is remarkably good about having consistent offers regardless of which channel is used to advertise it.

adampenrith

I used to work for a major International Charge card company that then got into credit cards too, I worked in marketing for existing and new card members. Considerable money was spent to gain new customers, as considerable money is made from customers.
The bloggers are welcome to anything they can get, after all they are doing advertising for free, so if they actually get a customer they have earns their commission.

PantyWaster

Who discloses this? I thought it was against the Affiliate Agreements they all have to sign.

augustus21

I don't apply through bloggers or other websites, assuming their offers are the same as any other public offer. I go straight through the bank's website.

lacuadra

I will not use any blogger's referral link, unless they have an exclusive link that offers higher than expected miles/points. Most of them steal the information from this website. FM is an exception. The rest can wait for my financial support, they will get tired.

alanewman

Anyone have an idea how much a blogger's commission is?

Just curious to know if it is significant or not on an individual application.

jatink129

Jeez.

Did we really need ANOTHER thread devolve into arguing this nonsense stuff ?

_______________________________________________

• Any way to get credit card affiliate referral kickback for yourself (or for FT)?
• What's wrong with Affiliate links?
• Affiliate Hall of Shame: Blog Posts that Pump an Affiliate When a Better Offer Exists
• I thought the Travel Bloggers were on our side? Fees and Politics
• Can you trust bloggers to give you the best offer?

satz

Some cards such as the Chase Ink card pay a very high commission hence the 500 posts from boardingarea bloggers during the week the bonus was raised to 60k pts. I wouldn't be surprised if that number is around $200-$300.

Some bloggers easily pull 6 figures out of those affiliate links. It is a very lucrative market which is why every single newbie has a blog now pretending to "help friends and family travel for free or very little." Just look at the weekly interviews from MMS who finds a way to interview a new blogger every week and he has been doing these interviews for a few years already...