affinity card

noun

A credit card made available by a bank or other lender to qualified people associated with a sponsoring organization (such as a club, educational institution, charity, or business), typically with provision for a portion of the lender's interest income to be paid to the sponsor and sometimes providing special benefits (such as reduced fees) for the users.

Meanings

nounaffinity card (plural affinity cards)

plural affinity cards

  1. businessA credit card made available by a bank or other lender to qualified people associated with a sponsoring organization (such as a club, educational institution, charity, or business), typically with provision for a portion of the lender's interest income to be paid to the sponsor and sometimes providing special benefits (such as reduced fees) for the users.

    [I]ssuers of credit cards . . . began years ago with such offerings as travel discounts and so-called affinity cards, which feature the logos of sports teams or donate a portion of every charge to charity.

    2001 June 24, Janice Castro, “Financial Services: Charge It Your Way”, in Time, retrieved 29 Oct 2013
    2 more examples

    Typically, an affinity card holder should produce between $8 and $12 per year to the affinity group," said George Hanold, president of Alliance Marketing, a company that sets up agreements between banks and groups.

    1987 November 29, Diane Cole, “What's New in Fund-Raising: Using Plastic to Rev Up Revenues”, in New York Times, retrieved 29 Oct 2013

    In August of 2007, Yale University signed a seven-year deal with Chase Bank, worth a guaranteed $7.98 million, to sell access to alumni, staff, sports fans and potentially students for the bank's credit cards. . . . Yale's contract provides the university with many controls over to whom and when the affinity card can be marketed.

    2010 June 7, Rob Varnon, “Bank pays millions to Yale to market its credit cards”, in newstimes.com, retrieved 29 Oct 2013

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 認同卡 /认同卡
  • 認同卡 /认同卡 (rèntóngkǎ)credit card
Finnish jäsenyyteen perustuva luottokortti
  • jäsenyyteen perustuva luottokortticredit card
French carte affinitaire
  • carte affinitairecredit card
Cite this entry
APA

affinity card. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/affinity%20card

MLA

“affinity card.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/affinity%20card. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “affinity card,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/affinity%20card.

Source: affinity card on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.