A CREDIT card with a difference Bank of Ireland's latest `affinity' card allows Mastercard customers to choose one of four different charities to which the Bank will make a £4 donation when the card is taken out and then a percentage of the annual spend on the card.

Known as the Charity Care Credit Card, it represents four charities - the Irish Cancer Society, Concern, St. Michael's House and the Hospice Foundation. Unlike other affinity cards, which enjoy a 2 per cent interest rate discount, this one charges the usual APR interest rate of 25.5 per cent, but this, said a Bank spokesman, was to offset the ongoing annual donation that the Bank will make to the charity of your choice. "We hope another attraction of this card will be that the user will be able to make credit card donations to their charity with the card. Personal donations over £200 a year to third world charities now qualify for tax credits to the charity in the case of Concern, every £200 donated means £274 to the charity."

For further information about the Charity Care Card contact Bank of Ireland Credit Card Services, Tel (01) 6798433, Fax (01) 6795351 or Internet boiccs.indigo.ie