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Citi Double Cash is a 2% cash-back no annual fee card. Interchange benefits merchants too - there's real costs associated with holding cash, and average cart s

Citi Double Cash is a 2% cash-back no annual fee card. Interchange benefits merchants too - there's real costs associated with holding cash, and average cart sizes are significantly bigger for credit cards. They also miss out on fewer sales. You may not value rewards programs but customers, card issuers and certainly those who operate those programs do. They're massive business. Frequently the only profitable part of a US domestic airline is its frequent flyer program - which gets the bulk of its money from credit card reward programs. Credit card companies have even provided debtor in possession financing for airlines in the US by pre-purchasing multi-billion dollar blocks of frequent flyer miles. Here's when Amex did it for Delta in 2011. [1] [1] https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/money/american-express-ready-to-bail-out-delta-with-600m/article_5834f99d-819a-5890-bb23-fefff8e0a879.html https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/money/american-express-rea...

TMWNN 4y ago
>Citi Double Cash is a 2% cash-back no annual fee card. Wells Fargo Active Cash is the other such card that I know of among big banks.
hakfoo 4y ago
I note recently they've recently changed it to present as "Thank You" points at a rate of 100-to-the-dollar. The cynic in me wonders how long before they devalue them. It's easier to start changing the rules for "points redemption" when they aren't saying outright "You have $112.75 in cashback value" on the statement. They recently had a promotion-- use the points directly to buy on Amazon, but if you paid that way, it was debased-- something like 120 to the dollar. It was actually better for me to buy what I wanted on credit, redeem the points as a bank transfer, and settle the bill at the end of the month.
- arcticbull 4y ago
  It could be a devaluation precursor, or it could just be psychological. Points-denominated rewards break the association with the actual dollar value. Folks feel better (irrationally so) about earning 100 points each worth $0.01 than they do about earning $1.00
ciabattabread 4y ago
So can we consider the airline a division of a major bank? Chase - United Citibank - American Airlines AMEX - Delta

TMWNN 4y ago

>Citi Double Cash is a 2% cash-back no annual fee card. Wells Fargo Active Cash is the other such card that I know of among big banks.

hakfoo 4y ago

I note recently they've recently changed it to present as "Thank You" points at a rate of 100-to-the-dollar. The cynic in me wonders how long before they devalue them. It's easier to start changing the rules for "points redemption" when they aren't saying outright "You have $112.75 in cashback value" on the statement. They recently had a promotion-- use the points directly to buy on Amazon, but if you paid that way, it was debased-- something like 120 to the dollar. It was actually better for me to buy what I wanted on credit, redeem the points as a bank transfer, and settle the bill at the end of the month.

arcticbull 4y ago
It could be a devaluation precursor, or it could just be psychological. Points-denominated rewards break the association with the actual dollar value. Folks feel better (irrationally so) about earning 100 points each worth $0.01 than they do about earning $1.00

ciabattabread 4y ago

So can we consider the airline a division of a major bank? Chase - United Citibank - American Airlines AMEX - Delta