Barclaycard cracks down on satire!

Last week, after I hit the publish button on my infamous “world’s most amazing advice column” post, I immediately emailed our fearless website leader Matt, “If you feel the need to kill that last one, I totally understand. But goodness gracious, that was a lot of fun to write!”

The reason I figured there was a chance of blowback was that the post was a reductio ad absurdum of online credit card marketing. The way the system often works is bloggers think of some pretense for selling cards and then write a half-assed post about it. No matter what the issue or problem is, you can bet the answer will involve an affiliate credit card link!

(For those of you who don’t keep up with this stuff, affiliate marketing is where website owners get paid for getting people to get credit cards and other products. The incentive is to move the product, not necessarily to help the consumer.)

So I figured I’d take this current state of ridiculousness to its logical conclusion and write an advice column from the point of view of the credit card itself, a column where the answer to everything is the Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite MasterCard®. To make it more realistic (and hilarious), I included actual affiliate links. Matt, to his credit, told me to write whatever the hell I want to. (This is why Saverocity is awesome.)

Today I receive the following note in my inbox from my affiliate marketing pals:

As part of their effort to optimize approvals, reduce risk, and streamline compliance procedures Barclaycard recently conducted a URL review and has decided to remove several publisher properties from their program. At this time Saverocity.com/pfdigest is one of the domains being removed.

This action is not necessarily a reflection of the quality or value of the websites being removed. Barclaycard controls the number and type of publishers in their affiliate marketing program. They also have the option to make changes, which may include the removal of publishers. Barclaycard continuously re-evaluates its strategy in the channel and does not preclude these sites from re-entry into its affiliate program at a future date.

So as of today: no more Barclaycard ads from me! Not that it’s a big deal financially: I hardly ever get card conversions since I hardly ever engage in hard-sell activities. I decided a long time ago that it would be more fun to have a blog than a second job, and also that it would be more fun to write whatever I want than to write whatever Barclaycard (or whoever) wants me to write. Thus, the Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite MasterCard® advice column.

What will change in the future here at Personal Finance Digest? Absolutely nothing! I plan to continue writing whatever the hell I want to on a sporadic basis with occasional copy editing issues, and as as always I am appreciative of those of you who actually read this.

Finally, I’d like to remind you all that the Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite MasterCard® is a horrible way of getting to Hawaii. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, on the other hand–what with its double points on travel and dining–is far superior! Yes, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is truly a wondrous financial product! Get one today!