Bank of America announced this week that it is partnering with Olivia Travel to launch a credit card aimed at the lesbian community. The card, a WorldPoints Platinum Plus Visa, lets cardholders earn points towards travel and merchandise, including Olivia travel. While Olivia claims that this is the first card marketed specifically to lesbians, I’d have to say that the Rainbow Card, fronted by Martina Navratilova, comes close. Yes, the Rainbow Card markets to both gay men and lesbians, but let’s face it, Martina just appeals more to us gals. There are also several other cards aimed at the broad LGBT community, like the HRC Visa Platinum card, not to mention cards for causes we tend to support, such as the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Hey, we’re a community with a buying power of $641 billion (PDF link). Not surprising businesses are paying attention. It will be interesting to see how Olivia’s card fares, though, since it is the first one (as far as I know) marketed to any part of the LGBT community without the message of “support the community through your card.” Yes, Olivia as a company supports LGBT causes, but they’re not using this as part of their credit card message. Personally, we had a LGBT-related card for a while, but gave it up in favor of one with a cashback feature, figuring that instead of supporting LGBT causes through our card, we’d get the cash back and make separate donations to the organizations we support. I won’t go through the numbers, but it seemed to work out better that way both for us and for the organizations. This makes me think that Olivia will do fairly well with their card; even those who want to give back to the community know that it doesn’t have to be through a credit card. If I want a card purely for personal rewards, that’s OK, too.
Interestingly, Martina will be aboard the Olivia Grand Caribbean Cruise this April. Presumably she won’t flash the Rainbow Card in her wallet.
Do you have an LGBT-related credit card? Would you consider one?
I would have no problem with the concept of a LBGT credit card solely in regards to the helping of our community, however we are currently closing out/paying off cards because a debit card, in most cases, can also be used as a credit card with some limitations. I’m just not a big fan of credit cards per se, but the LGBT part is good. Mostly we just use the debit part of the card, and if it won’t cover something, we just do without. More Americans should live that way.
[...] But there is a down side to skipping an annual fee. There is a cap on your rewards; you can only earn up to 75,000 ThankYou Points during any calendar year. And it costs a bit more points to earn a reward. With Amex, you can get a $25 gift card to the store of your choice for 2,500 points; with Citi the same $25 gift card to the same store is 3,500 points. So if you spend a lot of money on credit cards, I recommend a rewards card with an annual fee; otherwise go fee-free and get almost the same rewards.If you really want to stick with gay rewards, Dana at Mombian talks about gay-themed credit cards that give to gay causes. Meanwhile Caitlin discusses her favorite credit cards that give you unusually high rewards (2%, 3%, even 6% on specific things). Finally, you can compare all “reward” credit cards, at bankrate.com. [...]
[...] If you really want to stick with gay rewards, Dana at Mombian talks about gay-themed credit cards that give to gay causes. Meanwhile Caitlin discusses her favorite credit cards that give you unusually high rewards (2%, 3%, even 6% on specific things). Finally, you can compare all “reward” credit cards, at bankrate.com. [...]