Comment on More Americans are financing groceries with buy now, pay later loans — and more are paying those bills late, survey says

jordanlund@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

• isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Those benefits are usually your own money + the money of those who fail to make payments since merchants have to increase their prices to compensate for credit card fees.

  They indirectly steal from you, launder the funds and present it back to you as a “benefit”, but only if you’ve been a good boy.

  This is a similar principle as modern loyalty programs. In exchange for your personal information and your eyes (advertising), you get to pay slightly above the regular price and accumulate ✨points✨ while other schmos get a jacked up price that pays for your points (or the value of your points is built into the price of the items you purchase).

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  • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Not exactly. Card benefits come directly from fees charged to merchants, which is why processing fees vary wildly from card to card and the merchant has no clue what their fees are going to be per transaction (though this is starting to change with services like Stripe charging a flat percentage+ transaction fee). Interest and the like are pure profit for CC companies. You as the cardholder receive the benefits even if you carry a balance.

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    • isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yes precisely, and merchants increase their prices to account for those unknown processing fees since it varies wildly from card to card.

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  • EvacuateSoul@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The people who subsidize rewards are customers paying cash/debit.

    The prices are higher to cover the Visa Infinite or whatever premium card merchant fees.

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    • isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Absolutely, they get shafted the most.

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