Quantum chemical calculations have been performed on negatively charged nitric acid-sulfuric acid-dimethylamine clusters. The cluster energies were combined with a kinetic model to study the chemical ionization of sulfuric acid molecules and sulfuric acid-dimethylamine clusters with nitrate ions. Both the sulfuric acid monomer and the H2SO4·(CH3)2NH cluster get ionized, but the cluster has a much higher dipole moment, and thus a higher collision rate with charger ions. Clustering of sulfuric acid with bases will therefore increase its detection probability in the CIMS, instead of decreasing it as has been suggested previously. However, our comparison of different quantum chemical methods shows some uncertainty on the extent of sulfuric acid-dimethylamine cluster formation in typical ambient conditions, and no experimental data is available for comparison. Apart from affecting CIMS measurements, the degree of clustering is directly linked to the formation rate of larger clusters, and needs to be quantified in order to understand atmospheric new-particle formation. On the basis of the different charging efficiencies of the monomer and the cluster, a method is proposed for determining experimentally the binding energies of H2SO4·base clusters by measuring the extent of cluster formation as a function of base concentration.