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Bernie Sanders interest-rate cap could end credit-card rewards programs

marketwatch.com

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Re: Bernie Sanders interest-rate cap could end credit-card rewards programs

#12

Credit card rewards create a very bad incentive because they push consumers to choose cards with high merchant fees, who then have to rise their prices and make everybody pay the bill. Thus creating a race to the bottom with ever-increasing credit card fees.

This needs to be stated in more ways. Credit cards themselves encourage inflation (credit card fees, offset payments, lack of savings to pay for goods). And those same rewards programs are paid for with merchant fees, further encouraging price inflation.

Re: Bernie Sanders interest-rate cap could end credit-card rewards programs

#14
For what it’s worth, it took me a long time to raise money for my startup. Throughout that process, I relied heavily on my credit cards.

I don’t believe this would have been possible without high interest rates. I took a calculated risk.

Re: Bernie Sanders interest-rate cap could end credit-card rewards programs

#15
I live in a country where credit cards can't carry a balance. Everyone pays them off every month.

If you need a loan, you ask the bank.

In the absence of credit card interest rates, we pay yearly fees for cards depending on the rewards offered by each.

It's kind of the best of all worlds if you ask me.

Re: Bernie Sanders interest-rate cap could end credit-card rewards programs

#16
post #7

And that is bad because..? Credit card reward programs exist to encourage spending on massively over market interest rates. Also, capping the interest rate doesn’t reduce the benefit to making encouraging people to spend and carry debt, so I doubt they’ll go away.

> Credit card reward programs exist to encourage spending on massively over market interest rates.

More charitably, they exist to encourage you to spend what you'd spend anyway, but on their particular card.

Re: Bernie Sanders interest-rate cap could end credit-card rewards programs

#17

I live in a country where credit cards can't carry a balance. Everyone pays them off every month. If you need a loan, you ask the bank. In the absence of credit card interest rates, we pay yearly fees for cards depending on the rewards offered by each. It's kind of the best of all worlds if you ask me.

What if you don’t pay?

Re: Bernie Sanders interest-rate cap could end credit-card rewards programs

#18

I live in a country where credit cards can't carry a balance. Everyone pays them off every month. If you need a loan, you ask the bank. In the absence of credit card interest rates, we pay yearly fees for cards depending on the rewards offered by each. It's kind of the best of all worlds if you ask me.

What if you don’t pay?

Seems simple. No credit, until you do.

Re: Bernie Sanders interest-rate cap could end credit-card rewards programs

#19

Credit card rewards create a very bad incentive because they push consumers to choose cards with high merchant fees, who then have to rise their prices and make everybody pay the bill. Thus creating a race to the bottom with ever-increasing credit card fees.

Yes! We should simply make credit card rewards illegal in a more direct way. Effectively, people with low-paying rewards cards—and people paying in cash—are subsidizing people with high-paying rewards cards.

In other words, credit card rewards are yet another wealth transfer from poorer people to wealthier people.

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