July 31st, 2009
A Linux credit card
The Linux Foundation has rolled out an affinity card that will be managed by UMB Financial of Kansas City.
Affinity cards have been around for many years now. They usually bear the imprint of a tax-exempt group, like a college or charity.
The Linux card, bearing the image of Tux the penguin and now available in the U.S., will earn the Foundation $50 when it’s activated plus an unspecified share of the fees.The money will go to community technical events and travel for open source community members to technical events.
Most affinity cards are managed by either MBNA America, which pioneered the field or US Bank of Minneapolis. The Linux card, however, is managed by UMB, a Kansas City company run by Mariner Kemper.
A 2008 profile of the bank in American Banker describes UMB as a family operation — Mariner is the sixth Kemper to run it in its 95-year history — and praises the quality of its portfolio. Mariner’s brother, Alexander Kemper, was CEO of Perfect Commerce (formerly eScout), which now bills itself as a real-time spend management company.
It seems likely that the Foundation was brought the deal by CardPartner, a New York company that has launched over 100 affinity programs in the last year, all managed by UMB, and is pioneering affinity deals with smaller charities like Gilda’s Club New York and Guide Dogs for the Blind.
For those interested, the card offers a 0% teaser rate for six months, no annual fee, and a points program so you can get cash back from participating merchants.
Plus there’s that cute penguin.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 07/31/09
(nt)
