Quote:
Originally Posted by Acrossamerica
So as you pat your self on the back for "earning" 1-5% on your purchases you are really paying for that and possibly a bit more to cover the aggravation factor of being in business and dealing with thousands of customers who "know" so much better how to run everyone else's business.
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Technically, no.
Not everyone has a "points" card, some have regular cards, some people pay with cash. For the most part, the business charges the same amount to every customer (yes, we've all seen the RARE cases of the small business that has a 2% cash discount).
So in reality the people who are NOT using points cards, or are paying with cash are co-funding the rewards received by the points-card holders. Everyone is paying the same price, and the business has to set their prices to cover a worst-case payment scenario (higher-fee points card user).
For me personally, I prefer to put everything on the credit card, even the $2.00 transactions. It's mostly convenience and spending tracking. For something like eating out (especially a breakfast or lunch) it's a spontaneous decision for the wife and I. We'll be out doing other things, decide to get something to eat, and find a local spot. I don't like going in and having to worry about if I have enough cash on hand to cover the bill+tip, or having a meal eat up a decent amount of my pocket cash and then having to go to the bank at some point. The bigger benefit of using a card is spending tracking. I can put $200 in my pocket and it will seemingly "evaporate" if I'm paying for things in cash. $30 for lunch, $80 at the grocery store, $10 at Starbucks, and so on. A week later I'm out of money and struggling to remember what I spent it on. Put all that stuff on the card and it's easy to look back at the end of the month and have an overview of what our expenses were. The points stuff is a nice side-benefit, but I'd use credit cards over cash even without the rewards. However, since I do have a rewards card I should say "thank you" to all the cash-payers subsidizing it for me
