A reminder that “cashback” credit cards are paid for by big fees on transactions which the store pays, forcing them to raise prices. It’s literally anticompetitive
And debit and cash use still pay this price without the benefit.
Literally taking their money and giving it to credit card user as reward.
There is no justification for credit cards. Banks should do credit margins and transactions should be extremely cheap under a common system.
Eh, for a lot of businesses, the few percent they pay in card fees is worth it to avoid handling large quantities of cash. Cash is a pain in the ass to actually work with on a large scale. Collecting it, counting it, securing it, keeping employees and random criminals from stealing it, etc. Plus lots of cash allows employees to steal from both the employer or the customer by giving bad change deliberately.
Not that businesses shouldn’t accept cash, but there is a reason a lot of them don’t want to mess with it. It’s an enormous hassle.
This does not apply so much in the Whole Foods/Prime example; the store, the membership, and the credit card are all Amazon products. The consumer is paying Amazon for the privilege of paying Amazon to pay Amazon.
A reminder that “cashback” credit cards are paid for by big fees on transactions which the store pays, forcing them to raise prices. It’s literally anticompetitive
And debit and cash use still pay this price without the benefit. Literally taking their money and giving it to credit card user as reward. There is no justification for credit cards. Banks should do credit margins and transactions should be extremely cheap under a common system.
Eh, for a lot of businesses, the few percent they pay in card fees is worth it to avoid handling large quantities of cash. Cash is a pain in the ass to actually work with on a large scale. Collecting it, counting it, securing it, keeping employees and random criminals from stealing it, etc. Plus lots of cash allows employees to steal from both the employer or the customer by giving bad change deliberately.
Not that businesses shouldn’t accept cash, but there is a reason a lot of them don’t want to mess with it. It’s an enormous hassle.
I’m not saying back to cash, I’m saying near zero cost transaction with contactless smartcards.
This does not apply so much in the Whole Foods/Prime example; the store, the membership, and the credit card are all Amazon products. The consumer is paying Amazon for the privilege of paying Amazon to pay Amazon.