Hacker News Reader

Comment by gorena | Hacker News Reader

Using cash is throwing away money. I get up to 6% back on some transactions. Not to mention the ability to chargeback if necessary.

View on HN

I guess if you look at it at a glance, it's throwing away "up to 6%". But at the end of the day, you're paying for it somehow, whether it's via higher prices charged by the merchant to cover their swipe/interchange fees, by exposing your payment history, or by late fees & interest if you don't pay it off immediately.

Yes, but that's independent of your actions. Anywhere credit cards are accepted, you're paying a hidden credit card tax on anything you buy, because merchants will raise prices to cover the fees. But if you don't use your card, you're paying the tax still, but getting nothing back.

You have to have a large number of individuals cooperate (agree not to use credit cards) in order to gain a group benefit (lower prices because the merchant isn't paying transaction fees). Any one person can defect (use a credit card) to get their cash back, for personal benefit to the detriment of the group.

If I was a merchant, I'd solve the problem by passing on the credit card fee to consumers who use the card (or equivalently, offer cash discount, if my marketing department tells me consumers hate surcharges but love bargains).

Where do you think that 6% comes from?

As with the lottery, people that are bad at math?

More likely, people with bad credit.

Well, you get the bad credit by being bad at math.

Which CC gives 6% cash back?

No idea the highest I've seen is 1.25% for Amex Cashback Platinum...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com