6 ms·

I always wondered why people in America would ever pay by cash or credit card - unless they are laundering that cash. Otherwise, you're giving up 1-3% discount

• MattGaiser 2mo ago
  Most people can’t optimize for 1-3%. Life is flooded with 1-3% choices. Even as someone who is a credit card optimizer, I also ignore numerous 1-3% choices a day. Many people also spend more than they can cover on it.
• hvb2 2mo ago
  > Otherwise, you're giving up 1-3% discount. I would be curious what percentage of people actually qualifies for a card with over 2% cashback especially without a monthly fee. My guess is that that percentage is very low. High earner/spender, sure but that's not most people
  • svpk 2mo ago
    I know that Discover has a card with a 5% discount category that changes once a quarter. Everything not in the category gets 1%. It's not hard to get the card (or at least wasn't) and was frequently advertised to college students. If you combine that with a card that gives 2% on everything than it wouldn't be hard to average over 2% cashback as long as you were mindful about using the discover card for qualifying purchases and the 2% card for everything else.
    • greenavocado 2mo ago
      > as long as you were mindful about using the discover card for qualifying purchases and the 2% card for everything else. And that's the rub. Credit card companies know most people won't be too mindful most of the time about their spending habits.
      • bluGill 2mo ago
        There is one other rub - because I use my bank's card I get better interest rates. How does a .25-.5 % on my various loans and checking account compare to 2% on groceries - this is a complex question that it not easy to answer.
  • Xirdus 2mo ago
    My first US credit card was a 4-3-2-1% rewards program and I had literally zero income at the time. I was told by the banker, "oh you can't do that right away, you must first get a secured card to build your credit score, after a year you can try applying for real", but I told them I don't care and to send the application anyway, and I've got it. Ever since then, I wondered how much of the "not qualifying" is due to misinformation like this.
    • bitmasher9 2mo ago
      Most true not qualifying are either 1. People with proven bad credit. 2. People asking for a lot of money without proven good credit. 3. People asking for more specialized credit, such as lines for businesses or lines for high earners.
      • Xirdus 2mo ago
        The question is what percentage of overall population are 1, 2 and 3 combined, and is it big enough to warrant the perception that high reward cards are only for high earners/spenders. My instinct says hell no, not even close.
  • ixwt 2mo ago
    I have a 2% cash back credit card from my bank, with no monthly fee. It started as a 1% cash back card around a decade ago, and slowly crept up to 2%. It's a nation wide credit union that has certain requirements to join though.
  • sokoloff 2mo ago
    If you have Amazon Prime, I recommend getting the no-fee Chase Amazon card. 5% on Amazon and Whole Foods; 6% on some Amazon “no rush” deliveries. No affiliation; just a happy user.
    • Jach 2mo ago
      I treat the Amazon Prime membership as the "card fee". The cash back accumulation per year is always greater than the membership fee for me. (The original main benefit of savings on shipping is of course also nice, though if I'm honest with myself I'd say the majority of my purchases didn't actually need 2-day/1-day/same-day shipping. Very nice luxury however.)
  • gblargg 2mo ago
    It's not hard at all. Citi Custom Cash has 5% on the highest category spend each month for the first $500 (I use it on groceries). American Express Blue Cash Everyday has 3% on groceries/gas/online purchases for up to $6000 purchases each year. Chase Freedom Flex and Discover It have rotating categories every quarter, sometimes groceries, gas, Amazon, PayPal, etc. None of these required much income to be approved.
• strix_varius 2mo ago
  This presupposes the ability to get a credit card and the confidence of sufficient funds when that auto payment hits.
  • sokoloff 2mo ago
    If the alternative was paying cash, cash has an even more demanding level of confidence of sufficient funds required and it applies earlier with no flexibility.
    • ali_alkhazraji 2mo ago
      [flagged]
    • strix_varius 2mo ago
      No it applies at whatever time you choose - it's the most flexible option for a person whose wealth fluctuates frequently around a low baseline.
      • sokoloff 2mo ago
        I don’t think I understand. If I pay cash for everything and my cash level fluctuates down to $0 temporarily, how do I buy something right then?
  • aurareturn 2mo ago
    confidence of sufficient funds when that auto payment hits How is this different than paying with cash or debit?
    • strix_varius 2mo ago
      Because cash and debit allow you to pick the time in the month when you happen to have the ability to pay for something. Frankly these questions astound me, do y'all really know no low income folks?
• Xirdus 2mo ago
  A lot of it is to enable the small business owners to hide their real income. At least that's how it works in immigrant communities.
  • esseph 2mo ago
    Huh?
    • Xirdus 2mo ago
      Based on the downvote and your reaction, I assume I misread something. We're talking about why Americans sometimes prefer paying with cash over credit card, no?
      • IAmBroom 2mo ago
        I think it was the "immigrants" comment. To me, it's like claiming "black people like chocolate!". They do. So do most people. Why single out black people?
        • Xirdus 2mo ago
          I'm the immigrant in question. I pay with card for literally everything online and offline, except two things - my haircuts and my wife's nails. Both of which accept credit cards. I go out of my way to withdraw cash (10 minute drive) just for these two things. Both the barber and the beautician appreciate it, for obvious reasons. My cousin with housecleaning business also gets paid mostly in cash, also for obvious reasons. It's just a thing we do. I don't know if natural born citizens do it too or not. Personally haven't seen it.
          • IAmBroom 2mo ago
            And you wouldn't see it from the POV of a natural citizen, not being one, but I assure you it has nothing to do with immigration. Cash is one of the few ways the "little guy" can sneak things past the IRS.
• ChrisMarshallNY 2mo ago
  I paid a lot of credit card interest, as a yute, but, since getting married, I have paid in full. Been over 30 years. Leeches rule! At one time, credit card companies forced vendors to charge the same, whether cash or credit, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside. The problem is, is that cash is becoming less and less acceptable. In a nearby town, you can't pay for parking, with cash. I have seen credit-card-only vending machines. A lot of restaurants have iPads at the table, and you never see anyone but the bus[boy|girl|whatever], bringing you your food.
  • bluGill 2mo ago
    Credit cards are cheaper than cash for most merchants. Most people forget about all the costs of cash because they are hidden, but they add up to more than the couple % credit cards cost.
    • ChrisMarshallNY 2mo ago
      > Credit cards are cheaper than cash for most merchants. Huh. I always thought it was the opposite. I know several restaurants that refuse to accept credit cards. They are great places to eat, but I won't go there. I don't think they miss my custom, though. Refusing to accept credit seems to be a signal of excellence, around here.
      • bluGill 2mo ago
        If you don't do the accounting, it appears that the fees on a credit card are greater than the cost of cash and so restaurants that haven't done their accounting closely often think they're getting themselves something by not accepting credit cards. The cost of a credit card is very obvious. The cost of cash is many small things that are very hard to see and thus very hard to account for correctly.
      • OptionOfT 2mo ago
        In Belgium it is common knowledge that cash-only places don't report everything to the feds. For the same reason those food establishments had to get a government approved White Cash Register, because there was so much money disappearing.
• internet2000 2mo ago
  Prices don't go down, they only ever go up. There is no situation in which interchange fees get slashed and prices go down across the board by 3% to make it worth it for card users.
  • throw0101a 2mo ago
    > Prices don't go down, they only ever go up. Well, there was that time in the 1930s.
  • amiga386 2mo ago
    Prices do, in fact, go down. For example, eggs in the USA went down from $6 to $2 in the past few months. https://www.macrotrends.net/3052/us-egg-prices https://www.macrotrends.net/3052/us-egg-prices Long term average? Sure, it goes up, that's inflation. But do you know what causes inflationary pressure? Visa and MasterCard adding unjustified fees because they're a duopoly and control most of the payments market, and your government won't regulate them and cap fees. The UK and the EU both cap debit card fees at 0.2% and credit card fees at 0.3%. When the UK left the EU, Visa and Mastercard jacked up their fees over 5x for UK-EEA payments. Not because they had to, but because they could, and they love sucking money out of other peoples' businesses. https://www.psr.org.uk/our-work/market-reviews/market-review-into-cross-border-interchange-fees/ https://www.psr.org.uk/our-work/market-reviews/market-review... Retailers in competitive industries absolutely do use a reduction in card fees to lower their prices. Maybe not all the way, but they definitely don't give it all to themselves as margin; their competitors don't.
    • internet2000 2mo ago
      > Long term average? Sure, it goes up, that's inflation. But do you know what causes inflationary pressure? An economy that relies on growth, yep.
• EliRivers 2mo ago
  I've heard such people referred to as deadbeats.
  • bluGill 2mo ago
    Once in a while. However the truth is the large people who collect the 1% and pay off their card every month are the people who don't. These people are customers year after year, and often spend more on their cards (they tend to be higher income), and the bank gets their 2-3% from them (2-3% after rewards) People who don't pay their card off also are on the look out for lower interest rate cards and switch all the time. they in reality are not paying the very high rates on cards, they are paying the lower introductory rates (which is still a lot of money). These people are also more likely to default and stop paying leaving the bank to write everything off. Combine that with the fact that they typically don't spend as much over several years (they hit their credit limit and their income won't allow an increase so they have to stop spending), and they are not as profitable as it seems.
• cfiggers 2mo ago
  When I and my (still fairly young) family needed to move cross-country, my wife and I accepted a credit card offer with 0% APR for the first year and put all our moving expenses on it. Then once we settled, we paid it down a bit at a time each month, and then right before it would have started charging interest we paid the rest as a lump sum. Really helped us float the moving company and also some DIY renovations on our house that we didn't have all the cash on hand to pay for outright. And we didn't pay a thin dime for the privilege.
• onion2k 2mo ago
  Credit card companies are still charging merchants a transaction fee for your purchases though. The fact they're only charging one side of the transaction is probably annoying for them, but you still make them plenty of money.
• dougdude3339 2mo ago
  I prefer my debit card because I'm more aware of how much I'm spending. Money taken out of my account is immediate and feels real. Ultimately, I spend less.
  • paxys 2mo ago
    One isn’t more real than the other. They are both numbers in an online database. In one case your assets are going down, in the other your liabilities are going up. The net result is the same.
    • cpburns2009 2mo ago
      I agree with dougdude. I like debit cards better because you see the balance change immediately. The thing I dislike about credit cards is payment is deferred by a month.
      • ValentineC 2mo ago
        > The thing I dislike about credit cards is payment is deferred by a month. I like this. It means that I can earn a bit more bank interest on what I've spent.
    • skinfaxi 2mo ago
      It's a world of difference if one of them gets stolen vs the other.
      • paxys 2mo ago
        In that case a credit card is actually significantly better than debit
        • skinfaxi 2mo ago
          Yes that was my point. A debit card stolen from you hits harder than some numbers in a database going down when you can't pay your rent.
• dml2135 2mo ago
  Well, one reason is the one described in TFA —- credit card rewards amount to a regressive wealth transfer, and if you think that is bad, you may not want to participate in it. Another reason is that credit card companies sell your purchase data to aggregators and advertisers, and cash affords more privacy.
• matheusmoreira 2mo ago
  > Otherwise you're giving up 1-3% discount. I always ask for a discount but for some reason I almost never get it. The rational move then is to pay in as many installments as I can get without any additional interest. Then time itself gives me the discount. My actual money stays invested and I only pay later. My credit card gives me 1.1% cashback on all purchases. Inflation too does some of the work.
  • bluGill 2mo ago
    You shouldn't get a cash discount - cash costs the merchant MORE than credit card fees. You have to count all the costs of cash that credit cards don't have: counting, and recounting the cash and change. Then the manager counts and recounts everything in the back room at the end of the shift. Then the manager counts everything twice again to write up the deposit forms. Plus you need a cash register with the extra cash drawer that acts like a safe. Plus other security systems just to prevent robbery (this can get elaborate in areas where robbery is common). Those all add up.
    • matheusmoreira 2mo ago
      > You shouldn't get a cash discount Maybe, but "should" has nothing to do with it. Either I get one or I use my credit card. > cash costs the merchant MORE than credit card fees That's not my problem.
      • greyw 2mo ago
        Just pay with a credit card, it's the optimal way by far (float, flexibility, rewards). No need to overthink it.
        • matheusmoreira 2mo ago
          It's worth to think about it a bit, especially in larger purchases. Significant discounts on the order of 5% to 10% can easily beat all credit card benefits, and not taking advantage of it leaves lots of money on the table. I have a little lookup table for this. Interest free installments mapped to cash discount necessary to beat the credit card. I just look it up. 1x -> ~1.9% 2x -> ~2.3% 3x -> ~2.8% 4x -> ~3.2% 6x -> ~4.0% 8x -> ~4.9% 10x -> ~5.7% 12x -> ~6.6% 18x -> ~9% 24x -> ~11-12% These numbers are actually conservative. There's a lot of credit card benefits that weren't priced in. I add a couple percent to the required discount numbers and round it up to compensate. 1x -> 4% 2x -> 5% 3x -> 5% 4x -> 6% 6x -> 7% 8x -> 7% 10x -> 8% 12x -> 9% 18x -> 12% 24x -> 14%
• red-iron-pine 2mo ago
  > I think there's a term inside credit card companies for people like me: leeches or something like that. that's some odd classism there. credit card companies love your data. they can package it, sell it, analyze it. this is real data of actual behavior, not whatever people say or click -- money where the mouth is. even if they never make a cent off of you from an interest perspective they 1) still get fees from the merchants, and 2) get all of that juicy juicy transaction info -- and that info alone might be worth the costs.
  • aurareturn 2mo ago
    FYI, Chase Sapphire Reserve made their rewards drastically worse recently. They were losing money on people like me.
• deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
• ndiddy 2mo ago
  > I think there's a term inside credit card companies for people like me: leeches or something like that. They genuinely don't care because they offer different products for different groups of people. Poorer people typically use credit cards to borrow money. The amount they spend in a month is typically much lower than the balance on the card. This means that the company makes most of their money from interest payments. Cards meant for this audience typically have few or no rewards, and instead use the interchange fees to allow for a lower APR. Meanwhile, wealthier people typically use credit cards as a payment instrument. They pay off the balance in full each month like you do. This group of people is responsible for the majority of credit card spending, and the credit card company makes most of their money from interchange fees. Cards meant for this market have higher APRs, and use some of the interchange to pay for the rewards. The cards meant for the top end of the market with the best rewards (i.e. Chase Sapphire) even charge retailers more in interchange, with the argument being that it's worth it because you get to bring in wealthy people who will buy more stuff.