If you’ve taken our new Rate Yourself survey, you may be shocked (or simply bummed) by your political breakdown and Campaign Finance Reform Score. One of the questions that most contributes to your personalized Campaign Finance Reform Score is “Who do you owe money to (mortgage, student loans, etc.) and/or have credit cards from?”
Many of us don’t realize that the money that we spend on credit cards (in the form of interest) and the money credit card companies make off of our purchases (in the form of fees) is also being spent on politicians we might not agree with (regardless of your party affiliation).
So, are there any Good credit cards for those of us who want to keep corporate money out of politics? Read on to find out!
Pretty Good Cards
Shop Your Way (Sears Holdings): CFR Score = +43. Sears Holdings and its senior employees contribute a medium level of money to politicians and PACs at a distribution that is 63% Democrat and 37% Republican.
Mastercard: CFR Score = +35. Mastercard and its senior employees contribute a lot (a level we call high) of money to politics, but the breakdown is 52% Democrat and 48% Republican.
Bad Cards
Discover Financial: CFR Score = -36. Discover and its senior employees contribute a high level of money to politics and 61% of that money goes to Republicans. Why is this bad? Because Republicans tend to favor corporate money in politics and Goods Unite Us is trying to get corporate money out of politics. You can read more about how our Campaign Finance Reform Score is calculated here.
Visa: CFR Score = -43. More bad news. Visa and its senior employees contribute a very high level of money to politicians and PACs and the distribution skews 53% Republican.
American Express: CFR Score = -45. It’s hard not to love the Delta miles. But like Visa, AMEX and its senior employees contribute a very high level of money to politics. And they skew 55% Republican. Many mileage collectors are probably bummed out about this (we definitely are).
JPMorgan Chase: CFR Score = -52. JPMorgan and its senior employees contribute a very high level of money to politics and the distribution is 52% Republican and 48% Democrat.
Citigroup: = CFR Score -53. Another high level contributor to politicians and PACs, at a distribution level that’s 53% Republican and 47% Democrat.
Check out more credit card companies on our app, and if you’re curious about banks read our blog post to find out where the best place to bank is.
And don’t forget: every purchase is a vote. While it’s true there are some things that money can’t buy, for those items you buy on credit, choose Mastercard if you care about getting corporate money out of politics.