Bank of Ireland is phasing out a range of charity-linked affinity credit cards because it says it is not economically viable to continue operating them.
Affinity cards are aimed at adding an altruistic touch to spending by giving a small financial reward to the specified organisation on the credit card.
Under the Bank of Ireland affinity scheme, the organisation receives 20 cent for each €100 spent through an affinity credit card. The bank, however, is discontinuing these credit cards for the Beaumont Foundation, Concern, the Irish Cancer Society, the Irish Hospice Foundation and St Michael's House.
A Bank of Ireland spokeswoman said that as part of a review it emerged that fewer than 1,000 affinity credit cards were in use for the five organisations. St Michael's House had just 57 cards. In contrast, she said affinity cards had proved much more popular with universities where thousands were still in use.
She said the decision to discontinue the cards had been taken in consultation with the charities and they had not opposed the decision.
"We arranged meetings with the charities and they agreed that they weren't a successful income-generating scheme and they agreed to end them . . . It was a joint agreement. We looked at ways of promoting the scheme further and the charities agreed that they would not be sustainable and that other forms of fundraising were far more sustainable."
Concern yesterday said it was disappointed that the scheme was going to end but it did not object to the bank's actions.
"It's a shame to see any income stream come to and end and it's not something that we were relying on," a Concern spokesman said. "It made sense from the bank's point of view to end it. The reason the bank gave us was that it wasn't economically viable and from their point of view they were committed to discontinuing the product."
The Bank of Ireland spokeswoman said charity-linked affinity card holders would be able to upgrade their old cards to new Bank of Ireland cards with chip and pin technology. As a gesture of good will, the bank said it was featuring an article on the charities affected in its quarterly newsletter, which has a readership of around 600,000 people.
A number of credit cards linked to large shops are also being discontinued, she added.
The spokeswoman added: "It wasn't a cynical move by Bank of Ireland. We are committed and have a long tradition of corporate citizenship . . . this scheme wasn't working. Charities have readily admitted it wasn't a success. It sounded like a worthy initiative, but it didn't work on the ground."
