Progressive Wednesday

It’s everywhere your dog wants to be

June 12th, 2007 by Eric

Last Wednesday you read about five ways that you can improve the lives of companion animals, stop animal cruelty, and even a little about how those animals can improve the lives of others. We asked you to join us (and several of you did), in donating just two bucks to the Humane Society of Louisiana. There’s a way you can donate more, and it won’t cost you a nickel.

Before I go on, I should say again that we’re not great advocates of credit card companies. I think it’s safe to say that we rather despise them and the lack of government regulation to keep them from charging 35% interest rates and $50 late fees. But a lot of people have them; there are 641 million of them in circulation. While I wish I were not a part of this statistic, the four I have do offer benefits other than the ability to drive my family into unrecoverable debt.

So, if you are thinking about applying for a new credit card, don’t. But if you do, consider this one: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Visa card from Chase bank, aka: “Kitty Kard.” Here’s the skinny from the ASPCA website:

Become a card-carrying member of the ASPCA and Chase will donate $75 upon first use of your new card - at no extra cost to you. In addition, each time you use your ASPCA credit card to make a purchase, the ASPCA receives 0.2% of the sale, with a minimum guaranteed payment from Chase of $2.4 million.

With Americans charging $1.5 trillion on their credit card every year, if everyone switched to this card the ASPCA would get $348,075,000,000 in total one-time donations and sales percentages from Chase. Since that would make Chase either file for bankruptcy or drop the program, we’ll shoot for a lower number. In fact, I’ll ask you to shoot for just one: you.

I’ll hold you to the same intellectual standard as high schoolers that are taught, “Don’t have sex, but if you do, use a condom,” when I say, don’t apply for credit cards, but if you do, apply for this one. It might just save the life of a creature of this world, and it doesn’t cost you a nickel. Just remember to pay off the balance every month.