Is Congress Going to Kill Credit Card Rewards?
Is Congress Going to Kill Credit Card Rewards?
Supporters of the Credit Card Competition Act of 2022 say it may lower store prices. Opponents argue it may decimate the perks that come with your plastic.
Legislation known as the Credit Card Competition Act, first introduced in Congress in 2022, is described by its sponsors as encouraging “competition in electronic credit transactions.” But if lawmakers end up passing the measure, opponents say it could also torpedo the rich rewards and perks that cardholders have enjoyed for years.
“Will consumers lose? Probably,” wrote Brian Riley, director of the credit advisory service at Mercator Advisory Group, in an August 2022 post to the Mercator blog. “Their reward programs will dry up, just as they did with debit cards.”
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I would use cash today if I didn't need to deal with stupid amounts of change. I don't carry a coin purse and I don't want to, and I prefer my wallet to be thin instead of packed with bills. Some solutions (in the US):
- abolish the penny - ideally we'd abolish the nickel and dime as well and round to the nearest $0.25
- include sales tax in the price on the shelf - buying a $0.99 item ends up being $1.08, which means I get a handful of coins with nearly every purchase; if it was included, stores would probably round and eliminate most of my change
- have better security on debit cards - I don't use mine because of horror stories around fraud; I'm thinking banks would generate a special token for each vendor (i.e. a separate card number) and the user would set a limit on it; if the UX was decent, it could go a long way; if there's a breach, attackers would only be able to spend up to that limit, and only at that vendor
I'm sure there are a million ways to improve things, yet we do none of them. But until cash stops being a nuisance, I'm not going to use it.
The $0.99 prices is the stupidest thing in America, I haven't seen it in any other country. Also, agreed on including sales tax and rounding to .25. Would actually make using cash tolerable.