For nearly all my adult life, I’ve been using one sort of Reward Credit Card or another. It’s one thing to get miles you may have a tough time using, and quite another to watch as a 529 college savings account funded with these rewards is on track to pay for a full semester of my daughter’s college. I’ve ignored the series of articles that reference “studies that prove consumers spend 12.3% more on credit cards than with cash.” It’s not that I think such things are possible. Nor do I think myself immune to the attraction of the impulse buy. It’s simply that there is no study I’ve found which offers real world data. Giving college students $20 and a $20 gift card to compare behavior isn’t the kind of study that will convince me of anything.
That said, I don’t kid myself into believing there’s no cost to this. The money in that 529 account came from somewhere. I’ve always known that the credit card companies are making money both on the interest paid by those who carry a balance month to month, and from the fee they charge the merchants to process the transaction. One can rationalize that I’m getting back the money the bank charged the merchant or that the merchant’s profits are lowered by picking up the tab. Worse, others have suggested that the merchants are all forced to charge more and prices are all a bit inflated due to the bank’s fees.
The banks also required the merchants accepting their credit cards to not charge extra for credit transactions. In a victory of the Merchants vs The Banks, this was deemed illegal, and starting yesterday, merchants are allowed to add a ‘swipe fee’ for card usage. Interesting to note that ten states have laws restricting any type of surcharge fees: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas.
My advice if you don’t live in one of these states is to pay close attention. Stores that plan to charge an adder for a credit card transaction need to post it clearly near the register. If the fee is more than your reward, you might wish to consider going back to cash. (Except for the fragile tech tech purchase on a card that offers a year’s damage protection. That’s worth every bit of a percent or two to me.)
I don’t think any of the large chain store are planning to add credit card transaction fees to the receipt, but I would be surprised if many mom&pop stores does not implement it. Luckily I am in one of the excluded states, but do not like this trend. Credit card rewards are too good to start having to use cash.
I’m in an excluded state as well. I think this may be much ado about nothing, or it starts a war between the merchants and the banks. I hope the consumer isn’t caught in the crossfire.