Credit cards-cum-awards are popular in the luxury automobile world — not to mention with everything from gas companies and booksellers to, of course, airlines — for a variety of reasons. For one thing, they are a potentially powerful loyalty tool; for proof, just try asking an avid traveler who holds, say, a co-branded American Airlines card to use it to buy a ticket on United.

But Rick Ferguson, editorial director of Colloquy, an Ohio-based publisher and consultancy specializing in loyalty marketing, points out that there’s more than just brand loyalty at work when it comes to high-end automobile manufacturers.

“The reason you’ve seen such a proliferation of these cards over the past year or two is that the issuers and banks are trying to reach the affluent market,” he said.

Adding well-heeled drivers — who tend to both spend and use plastic more — to their customer base is obviously a boon for credit card issuers. For the car companies themselves, it’s a good way to stay in touch with customers they may otherwise lose touch with once they drive off the dealer’s lot.

You'll Need Points to Get the Following: • Routine maintenance on a typical 2005 Mercedes-Benz E350 with 50,000 miles would be about $150, or 15,000 points. Also from Mercedes, a Brooks Brothers golf shirt would run $50, or 5,000 points. • With the BMW card, it takes 25,000 points to get 1,000 extra miles on the lease-end mileage credit.

“If you lease, you may go in [a dealership] every two years, and if you buy it may be three to five years before you are back in the dealership to trade the car in,” said Ferguson. “The credit card platform is a marketing platform. They can use it for communication, they can understand purchase habits individually and as a consumer segment so that they can look for communications and offers that are relevant to you … that’s the way they hope to keep the relationship going with the car owners.”

For dealers who have been struggling with slow sales, a particularly important aspect of these card programs is the incentives they give for drivers to bring their cars in for service and repairs. For example, the Lexus Pursuits Visa awards cardholders five points for every dollar spent at a Lexus dealership, while using the card anywhere else brings in just 1.5 points on the dollar. It certainly delights the dealers. “Anytime you can drive a customer back to the dealership, they’re excited,” said Ray Specht, president of Toyota Financial Savings Bank.

Each point awarded to cardholders is worth a penny. So, 1,000 points equals $10; 10,000 points equals $100 and so on.

Published on 7/26/06

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