but it does in the sense that instead of being paid to save money, responsible people like myself have gotten used to being paid 2% on their spending in the form of credit card rebates. It’s like the savings account of the past.
That’s actually quite a lot of money tax free nowadays, really more than a savings account, since you can charge all your “basic expenses” and get 2% tax free.
I probably charge 50-60k a year, hell maybe more, including the 6% amex grocery rebate card. that’s probably 1400-1600 tax free money, for eating and paying bills.
assuming the charges were for things you were absolutely going to buy anyway and you don’t spend any extra to get this amazing 2% plus yield, consumption is the safest investment there is, better yields and safer than even municipal bonds.
which is creepy.
If I told my dad 30 years ago that someday I’d make my safest return, way more than money market acvount, from charging shit and paying it off timely, he’d have thought i was nuts.
what it says about a society where we actually see our safest “yield” from spending money on a credit card (albeit responsibly) and see virtually nothing for saving it in a bank, and then get most of that taxed away?
CONSUME. AMERICA NEEDS YOU TO BUY SHIT.
I think what it means is that at some point the USA is going to be looking for a giant “credit card rebate” on its own ballooning debt, and the form that will take is negative interest rates, which in a way is what a rebate on credit cards is;
i mean by that, the interest rate on my credit card is -2%, because i pay it off in full every month.
uncle same is the “debtor”, like me, and so why wouldnt he also want a nice fat rebate, at least short term, to pump up his finances?.
ok, When gold is down, buy gold on eBay from reputable places like apmex. Or go directly to Ampex or Kitco’s website and put it on your credit card to get your cash back.
When gold price go up, take your gold coin to San Diego Bullion and sell it and get a check with no receipt.
Rinse and repeat.
I said eBay, because in addition to cash back, eBay sometimes runs the eBucks reward program, which they give you 8-10% rewards certificate for purchases you make up to $400 max per quarter per eBay account. That $400 you could use for anything on eBay. but eBay started restricting coin purchases from qualifying for their rewards program. You can still find them sometimes.
Or if you need to buy tires, buy it from Discount Tire’s eBay store front during the time ebay is running their 8-10% cash back reward program. Then you double dip both on your credit card cash back program and eBay’s reward program.
There’s no longer any advantage of buying tires from tirerack.con since they started collecting state sales tax and offering free shipping. Same as Costco, or Discount Tire’s eBay store front. The only advantage is the ebay eBucks reward program.
I buy tires every 3-6 months so it makes a big difference for me.
Effectively, Merchants simply increase their prices to pay for the interchange fees.
So, it ends up being another tax on poorer folk who can’t or don’t have credit cards.
Another driver of inequality, which ultimately will be the end of all of us.
I can’t talk, tho. I have a card which pays 2.5% on all purchases. It was even 3% the first year.
.
