Credit cards are a part of everyone’s life… Whether buying a new home, car or getting a business loan – you need credit.
And the statistics back this up, as global lending grew from $6036.37 billion in 2020 to $6932.29 billion in 2021. This is one of the biggest industries in the world, and it still shows no sign of stopping.
As an affiliate, this is a perfect opportunity to get a small piece of this massive cake.
We will look at the best credit card affiliate programs throughout this article and walk you through our research. Keep in mind, we didn’t just select random affiliate programs. But instead, we looked at what the affiliate sites in this niche are promoting.
This way, you can be sure that the credit card affiliate programs we mention are profitable because REAL affiliate sites promote them…
Table of Contents
Best Credit Card Affiliate Programs
Here are the best Credit Card Affiliate Programs:
American Express
American Express is by far one of the most recognized finance brands in the world. But, contrary to what the name suggests, American Express operates worldwide and has also built a reputation in other countries than the united states.
We decided to put it at #1 because of two reasons:
- The payout of up to $200 per lead
- We saw affiliate sites widely promote their products
The commission works because you get paid for successful applications only – otherwise, it would be easy to scam the offer. Their affiliate program is hosted on Commission Junction, and you can sign up using the button below.
There are only really two downsides to the affiliate program. Firstly, the cookie duration is only 7-days.
And American Express does seem to be quite picky with who they partner with. So you may want to consider building up your audience first before you apply.
Credit.com
Credit.com has quite a unique affiliate program because, in theory, it’s an affiliate site itself. However, it is unique because you can get paid for referring visitors to their free credit scoring service, which is also a comparison.
And because Credit.com has such a wide selection of credit cards, the visitors you refer are likely to convert. In addition, unlike others in the industry, they even have options for people with bad credit scores, which could be an angle you use to promote it.
At the time of writing, the affiliate program is closed, but I would recommend keeping an eye out for it as it could be pretty lucrative. And if you want to work in this niche long-term, it will open up again at some point on your journey.
If you already have an affiliate account with them, you can sign in via the link below.
Petal
Petal is one credit card affiliate program that we didn’t expect to see this high up the list. However, when we researched affiliate sites actively promoting credit cards, Petalwas popping up everywhere – often on “best credit cards for…” as the #1 choice.
The cool thing about Petal is that you don’t necessarily need any credit score – as long as you can demonstrate that you have the cash flow to afford the card. Alongside this, it comes with an easy to overview dashboard and competitive interest rates.
As you can imagine, with all of these benefits, the conversion rates must be pretty high.
However, the main downside of the program is that it only pays around $15-25 per referral with the potential to earn more based on performance.
The affiliate program is managed by PartnerCentric and has a 30-day affiliate cookie period – which is pretty decent too. You can sign up for the affiliate program below.
USAA Credit Cards
USAA credit cards are another unique lending provider – as they have a particular focus on providing financial services to the United States Military community. So if this is your niche or some of your audience might be from the military, it’s the best option because it’s so tailored toward them.
They supply credit cards by Visa, Amex, and some of the other biggest providers. The only downside to USAA credit cards is that you only get paid $20 per approved credit card – which is not ideal.
But it does at least have a nice cookie duration of 30 days. In addition, you can sign up for their affiliate program at FlexOffers.
MEANING: You can also directly integrate it with afflytics.
Experian
Experian is one of the three major credit bureaus – meaning they provide credit reports and services that help users improve their FICO scores. Interestingly, they also have an affiliate program where you can refer users with the incentive that they can:
- Check their credit scores
- Improve their credit (for example, Experian boost)
- Get exclusive offers for their credit scores
The commission rate Experian offers is up to 20% of the revenue you generate – depending on the product. And to add to this, it also provides a cookie duration of 45 days.
So overall, it deserves to be one of the highest on this list, because it offers:
- An excellent commission rate and cookie period
- A great service
- A recognized brand that is one of the three major credit bureaus
Their affiliate program is offered on Awin, and you can sign up using the button below.
TransUnion
TransUnion is another one of the three most significant credit bureaus that offer similar services to Experian. They provide a monthly service where users can check their credit scores and get actionable advice on improving them, alongside other financial products.
We like TransUnion because you can drive traffic to the trials or the financial products directly, which gives you more options to promote it and find what converts best. Plus, you can even get paid for both when they sign up for the trial and then stay on… Not bad.
Their affiliate program pays $20 per $1 trial, $45 per paid product sale, and has a cookie duration of 45 days. You can sign up for their program via the button below.
Credit Karma
Credit Karma is another free service that you can promote. Despite being free, it does pay you for referrals – the only problem is that it only pays $0.25 per sign-up. This is a program that you’ll only really want to promote if you have high volumes of traffic. Otherwise, it simply won’t be worth it.
So, that might be your website ranking on high-volume keywords or YouTube if you get a lot of views.
And because you might want to refer your audience to a free service anyway, we thought we’d include it as this way you can get paid for it.
The affiliate program is hosted on FlexOffers, and you can sign up using the button below.
Upgrade Card
Next on our list is the Upgrade card. This credit card offers credit lines from $500 to $25,000 for users with average to excellent credit. While it doesn’t have the same broad target audience as some of the others on the list, it has preferable affiliate terms:
- $60 per lead
- A 30-days affiliate cookie
Plus, the credit cards also offer some pretty cool and unique rewards on payments. For example, users can get an unlimited 1.5% back in bitcoin on all their payments… Pretty cool and an angle that you can use to promote this affiliate program.
The affiliate program is also hosted at FlexOffers.
Summary
We hope you have enjoyed this guide on the best credit card affiliate programs. Finally, we just wanted to summarize the affiliate programs covered throughout.
Best Affiliate Networks for Credit Card Programs: Commission Junction & FlexOffers
Best Credit Card For Bad Credit Affiliate Programs: Credit.Com, Petal, USAA Credit Cards, Credit Karma, Indigo Platinum Mastercard
Best Credit Improvement Service Affiliate Programs: TransUnion, Experian,
Best Credit Cards For Good Credit Affiliate Programs: American Express, Upgrade Card
