Advanta pulls out of Affiliate Business, Worse Things to Come

Advanta may not be a famous credit card company. They are not Chase, and they are certainly not American Express. But they are a super conservative card issuer that has survived several hardships in the past. But this year seems different. For the first time in years, they stopped issuing dividends. But the more surprising part was when they announced that they will close down their affiliate business.

I’ve got to say that Advanta has had some of the best conversions among products that I did promote in the past. I personally don’t care too much about the credit card business. There are just too many folks involved in it, and not so much value is added with all these guys copying each other. But Advanta had strong relationships with its affiliates. With them pulling out, the business credit card affiliate market is officially dead, or close to it. Business cards will still be around, but companies can’t afford to pay us affiliates $50 to $100 to acquire customers for them. No wonder things don’t look like getting better these days.

Your thoughts: how have you been affected by major affiliate pullouts?