Credit Cards Rewards (New York, sell, conversion, positive)
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How are CC rewards not an example of you exploiting people in debt to their eyeballs to subsidize your lifestyle?
this is taking it to the insane level. somebody makes a ridiculous decision to not use credit cards and now they vilify anybody that takes advantage of them. people make the choice to pay credit card interest, i dont feel guilty for taking advantage of the rewards.
also, I don't view the credit card companies charging people interest for a loan as exploiting them. you choose to not accumulate debt. that's your choice and that's fine. you don't need to take your anti-debt philosophy to an unhealthy level. suggesting that people who take advantage of cc rewards are exploiting people in debt is being irrational.
Are the rewards paid for with interest charged to other account holders? Or transactions charges paid by the merchant?
I've always kind of assumed it depends on the card. 0% offers are probably paid for by people who go over the 0% term and pay the full CC rate on something they initially thought they would have paid off.
Per purchase rewards are more likely paid for by the swipe fees. They can give you 1% cash back because they charge the merchant 3%.
Intro offers are more likely paid for via a combination of the two above plus annual fees.
Of course there are always going to be times when someone does pay more than they receive in rewards(I just took advantage of an intro offer on a card and will be cancelling it shortly) however I don't think you can say my reward was paid for from any one source. It come from the company's profits. If the CC company finds too many people are playing the game like I did, they won't raise interest rates, increase merchant fees, or increase annual fees... they'll most likely kill the program.
They offer these rewards because overall the reward card owners make them more money than they pay out. If that wasn't the case and the intro rewards were a drain while the high interest payers were the only ones putting money into the system, they would get rid of the reward programs entirely.
i got an email about using united mileageplus points for hotels. so i ran a search for a night in boston and came up with 64,900 miles for one night (im not sure if that includes taxes/fees but we will assume it does). i ran the same search on the hotels web site and came up with $402 for the night (inclusive of taxes/fees). so that would mean you get a value of about .6 cents per point. that is unbelievably crappy. i cant believe anyone would actually hang onto one of these cards past the bonus period.
I don't do mileage cards as those seem to be a ripoff.
But I learned about the PenFed card on CD, got it, and use it, and love the free money they send me.
You get a good % for groceries and a fairly good % for gas. I think it's 5% and 3%. All other purchases are only one point. I use the card for all my groceries, all my gas, and never use it for anything else. I pay it off every month so I've never paid any interest.
They recently sent me a pretty nice gift card. With it I bought two silk living room lampshades for free.
i got an email about using united mileageplus points for hotels. so i ran a search for a night in boston and came up with 64,900 miles for one night (im not sure if that includes taxes/fees but we will assume it does). i ran the same search on the hotels web site and came up with $402 for the night (inclusive of taxes/fees). so that would mean you get a value of about .6 cents per point. that is unbelievably crappy. i cant believe anyone would actually hang onto one of these cards past the bonus period.
Are you really surprised that an AIRLINE card doesn't get you the best deal on hotels? They want you to use the miles to fly.
It seems like you just want to complain about the United Mileage program(which in case you forgot is a Frequent Flyer program first and a CC reward card second). You earn miles at more than a 1mile/$1 rate when flying. That's why the miles don't translate nicely. I recently booked a flight that cost $325 and as a result earned 1,492 miles. A 1% cash back program would have given me 325 "points" which is no where close to what I got.
If you're going to keep complaining that miles aren't the cash back you're used to, why not just get a cash back card instead?
I can book a direct flight houston to Honolulu in April for 67500 miles or pay 944.41 or 1.4 cents per mile. The milage value isn't fixed and sometimes is better than cash, others it's not. Sometime I use the milage to upgrade seats once I've purchased Econ tickets
Are you really surprised that an AIRLINE card doesn't get you the best deal on hotels? They want you to use the miles to fly.
It seems like you just want to complain about the United Mileage program(which in case you forgot is a Frequent Flyer program first and a CC reward card second). You earn miles at more than a 1mile/$1 rate when flying. That's why the miles don't translate nicely. I recently booked a flight that cost $325 and as a result earned 1,492 miles. A 1% cash back program would have given me 325 "points" which is no where close to what I got.
If you're going to keep complaining that miles aren't the cash back you're used to, why not just get a cash back card instead?
you must have been the one from before that thinks his role is to defend the airline. listen jeo, all credit cards must be competitive with each other if they want people to use them. im relaying my experience and what ive learned and im sure some people can benefit from it.
it doesn't surprise me that its not the best deal on hotels. but its also a terrible deal on plane tickets. also, if you book flights with it you only get double miles. so that's 2 points which would represent a nice amount lower value than a 2% cash back card. also, considering that chase ultimate rewards transfer to mileage plus at a 1 to 1 ratio, it would make much more sense to get one of those chase cards like freedom, sapphire, ink, etc. that offers you better point earning opportunities and the ability to transfer the miles to more programs at a 1 to 1 ration.
I have cash back cards. I have lots of cards and im going to get lots more. when they are good deals that work out well, im going to come here and tell people. when they are crappy deals that don't work out, im going to come here and tell people. that's what people are reading this thread for. if you don't want to hear the negative reviews, then maybe you shouldn't be in this thread.
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