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Coach
Quit quit quitttttyyyy time!
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Additional Posts in All things points
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Yes. It’s quite literally free money for doing nothing differently.
Yes
Only if you absolutely never, ever have a balance where you are paying interest.
Worth it in what sense? You shouldn’t be paying for them, but they do provide significant value. I’ve gone on several weeklong vacations at Ritz Carlton’s and haven’t paid for the hotel room with cash, just used points. Easily $5k value each trip.
Yes and no. Like someone said, getting points is better than not getting points. As long a you don't incur in unnecessary expenses just to get points (I've met people who think like this).
Also, credit cards with $500+ fees are only worth it if you were already consuming it those benefits. My friends try to justify their $595 Amex fee by saying they get their money back in Scotch. However, they wouldn't pay $595 in scotch at the airport if they didn't have the credit card.
I think those expensive cards, once you consume the signing bonus, they don't have economical value to me as I don't travel that much. I get why some people have them though (exclusivity, VIP access, etc).
Definitely got my moneys worth of food from the CSR when I had it. Flat $30 off the bill at restaurants they considered to be “lounges”. Twice that if you have someone else with you.
So I get a free meal every Thursday. Worked out to more than $1k over the course of a year for that benefit alone
Yes, if you travel by using airplane or hotels. I wish I wouldn’t have taken so long to switch from cashback cards to travel credit cards. It has saved me thousands of dollars in travel. It’s huge for me as an immigrant because I’m able to pay for my parents flights and have them sit in premium economy or higher.
I reached into my points balance to fly home for a funeral this month. if I hadn't done the work early this year of starting up that United card, I wouldn't have had that option and would have had to pay
Bowl Leader
I’m so sorry for your loss!
Rising Star
What's the alternative? Points will always be better than no points.
Rising Star
I would still consider those as credit card points though.
As opposed to nothing? Sure, I’ll take free money.
Think about how money you spend every year. You can easily get 2% back.
More if you want to try and optimize
Credit card points come at consumer cost. Prices are generally higher by 3% to cover CC costs. Card companies give consumers less than half of that value back. US has one of the highest processing fees to fund this lucrative game.
Other than that points is better than no points. Question that you are able to control is how do you maximize points for a given transaction.
I am not disputing that credit cards charge fees. That is obvious. I am disputing that customers pay 3% higher prices because of them.
Pricing is not nearly that simple and in something like retail, credit cards are the cheapest risk adjusted payment method to accept and tend to create considerably more volume (I.e, the most important KPI in retail). Basically 3% cost to retailer does not mean 3% cost to customer at register.
Outside of unattended gas pumps/kiosks, credit card fees are not 3-4% on the US. More like 2-2.5%.