3% at restaurants is offset by 3% fee to use cards at restaurants. this benefit is evaporating.
not an argument for or against cards, but they are becoming closer to neutral than a discount.
not an argument for or against cards, but they are becoming closer to neutral than a discount.
Regardless of all that, at the individual level, not using a credit card is still irrational. Not quite the tragedy of the commons, but it's pretty close.
The only way out is probably outright regulating the entire thing away, like the EU has successfully done; the market seems too inefficient and consumer behavior too sticky for card-specific surcharges (i.e. "you pay for your own points") alone to solve this.