Football (or soccer if you're American) is the most popular team sport in the United Kingdom.
Saturday afternoons are dominated by the hundreds of games being played up and down the country, each team with their own personal army of supporters who are often willing to follow their team all over the country and occasionally to Europe for competitions such as the Champion's League.
It's no surprise that the business of football revolves around merchandising to fund al those expensive new players. Merchandising can range from the obvious such as football shirts to the
extra-ordinary such as credit cards.
Yes, there are specific credit cards available for which ever team you support, most major clubs are represented such as Liverpool, Manchester United (and City) and London clubs Arsenal and Chelsea. Obviously for the diehard fan these cards make sure when you pay for goods at the till that they know exactly who you support!
What are the benefits of these cards, aside from gloating to other "lesser" fans? Well in some cases these credit cards utilise the cashback scheme which we're all used to by now where we earn a small amount of money each time the credit card is used. However, the twist with these cards is that you don't earn that amount for yourself, it goes to your club (you can see why they're meant for the super-fans out there).
Don't worry; your money isn't going to be spent on the next overrated player who'll fail to perform this season, in cases such as Arsenal and Liverpool the card's revenue is donated to youth development schemes helping nurture young home-grown talent for the future.
There are more general 0% credit cards available such as the official Barclaycard FA (football Association) credit card, where Barclaycard a sponsor of the UK football association offers attractive rates but also enter
customers into a prize draw for tickets to a big match each month, for this month they are offering tickets to the Manchester Derby (United versus City) in February. They also offer no interest on purchases of Season Tickets too.
So these kinds of credit cards may well be catered towards a specific crowd but they still offer attractive deals to entice fans to take advantage and in some cases like the ones mentioned can help give back to the club directly. As with all credit cards make sure you review all the details before committing and be absolutely sure you can pay them off in good time.
