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this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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Don't get me wrong, I heavily use and pay off my credit cards fully to get points. But that's precisely the problem. They've set up a "tragedy of the commons" where they extract economic rent: Individually, we are incentivized to use the cards, even though, collectively, it costs us all more for no benefit to the economy or society. (I am talking specifically about the rewards program portion. The transaction processing is useful, but should not cost that much.)
Imagine if this was a functioning market: using your high rewards credit card would cost more at the till. Say using a 2% cash back card means your purchase costs 2.1% more than baseline. Would you do that? Of course not. But because of corrupt pro-Wall Street laws, it's actually illegal to charge different amounts to customers for different cards.
I hear you. But I think it's one of those things where it needs to be a regulatory or legislation change. If this is all permissible, I don't think there is really a moral choice for the consumer to make in choosing to use a rewards generating credit card or other electronic payment option. I think the consumer in this scenario is only making the rational choice to maximize individual ends if these are the rules of the system, because regardless of what they do they are paying for it.
Agreed. I thought it would be evident by the fact that I admitted to using these programs myself that I’m not blaming consumers for using them.
That said, we do need to call out people who defend the credit card reward system, even if they do so out of ignorance. Otherwise, regulatory change is impossible.