https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/opinion/credit-card-rewards-inequality.html
Can’t read it (paywall) but if you charge just what you’re going to spend anyway and not more - and you avoid annual fees - I’d disagree.
I use a 2% rebate card mostly.
If I had a Shell gas card and drive 10 mins to use it or paid a higher price just to get a rebate, yes it’d be dumb.
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I hope someone posts a gift link. The story (short video) is much more macro than that.
Here’s a gift link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/opinion/credit-card-rewards-inequality.html?unlocked_article_code=1.BE0.vFIT.SZkbjypRyaLu&smid=url-share
Seems like the real issue is that the fees charged to merchants for accepting credit cards (“swipe fees”) are very high in the US.
General description: The Truth About Credit Card Swipe Fees
Description and advocacy from the National Retail Federation: NRF | Swipe Fees
According to the table at 2023 Interchange Rates - Visa, MasterCard, Discover, AmEx , a Visa rewards card may cost the merchant 0.15% to 0.59% higher in swipe fee than a basic Visa card. This seems to be lower than some reward cards’ rewards (i.e. if the card gives a reward worth 1%, the bank and Visa getting 0.15% to 0.59% more from the merchant does not seem like a great deal for the bank and Visa). Debit cards generally have lower swipe fees, although their consumer protections are less.
Obviously, if the proposed legislation mentioned passes, expect credit card rewards to go down. But it does not look like credit card rewards are the main driver for high swipe fees – it looks like limited competition for credit card processing from the merchant’s point of view is the reason.
What I got out of the video is that rewards wind up raising prices, and the burden falls much harder on those who can’t benefit from rewards who are lower on the economic ladder than those who do benefit.
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But unless all reward cards are removed, that won’t end.
Like healthcare and other services, we pay based on the expense of all and not just ourselves.
I did not watch the video because I much prefer to read my papers 
in peace and quiet, so I went through the comments. Someone in the comments on the NYT “article” posted this link debunking the “Rob the poor” theory.
Have not read the whole 27 pages but will skim.
Cash transactions come at a cost to merchants, too. Ask the pot shops, the only merchants that are banned from using credit cards, and they’ll tell you they’d much rather not deal with cash and constant break ins and
robberies.
The video is short and sweet. You can watch it without sound and read the subtitles.
This article seems intended to make me feel guilty that we take advantage of rewards cards. I’m reminded of the reports from 2017 about how upper middle class parents are “dream hoarders” because they use their relative affluence and knowledge to maximize their kids’ chances of success, e.g. by living in nicer neighborhoods, sending them to better schools, helping them find internships etc. There are plenty of very real problems in the world, whether it’s poverty, income inequality, lack of opportunities, burdensome fees that fall heavily on the poorest people, etc. But this just seems to be the wrong way to attack those problems: by trying to shame the people on the “consumer” end who try to take advantage of incentives created by the system. I have no problem with legislators who want to propose laws to regulate the fees credit card companies can charge. But in the meanwhile I’m going to continue to take advantage of my existing rewards cards.
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Also as someone who just finished paying for my D’s wedding, I can report that most of the vendors we dealt with either wouldn’t take credit cards or, if they did, assessed a 3.5% fee. We weighed that 3.5% fee against the rewards benefits and opted to pay by cash. That included the caterer, florist, wedding planner, cake bakery, DJ, videographer, etc.
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One of my pet peeves. I’m still hoping/waiting for the class action/anti-trust suit by some merchant association against issuers and processors.
Because, clearly, if pretty much everyone now can offer 2-3% of rewards, then that was ultimately funded by over-charging the merchants. At least in the past. Now the trend is, that more and more business will charge me an extra 2-3% credit card fee – just so that I can get 2-3% back!?
It’s highly overdue that the merchant fees are tied to the actual cost of running the credit card networks - and any consumer enticements should instead be required to be returned to merchants in form of “dividends”.
If credit cards want to entice me with premium offerings, then they have to finance that through appropriate card fees, where the individual consumer can “opt in” by choosing (or not) their “premium” card at the quoted fees.
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…or better: keep collecting that 2-3% of our Gross National Product, but require it to be used for funding the ACA. Voilà , I just figured out how to finance a capitalist, uniquely U.S. national health plan (that is approximately income based, yet doesn’t smell like socialism?) 
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Fun idea @DigitalDad. I think what you are suggesting is to treat MC and Visa more like regulated utilities. They are, at the moment, more of a hindrance than a help to innovations as far as I can tell. Incidentally, Amex charges more than Visa or MC.
There have been lawsuits. I think Wal-Mart brought such a lawsuit. Costco also negotiates very aggressively if I’m not mistaken because they only take one card/one network so their interchange fees are lower. The one who wins gets most of the $245 B in Costco revenues while the one who loses gets none.
I like the premium cards, which I tend to pay for, as the produce benefits for me as a traveler – lounge access, hotel or airline status, plus they pay for $X of airfare and $Y of Uber and the fee for Global Entry, etc. One of them provides primary insurance for rental cars. Another provides an extra two years of warranty for product purchases. One year, I ended up pouring coffee on an almost new Apple MacBook Pro (with lots of memory etc.) at an airport lounge. Amex promptly wrote me a check for the purchase amount, which was over $3000, I believe.
In contrast, the points have much less value than it seems. I have millions and some of them are very hard to spend in a cost-efficient way. I do not give much weight to points (though some airlines are better than others).
In short:
„What’s the Point?“
My rewards card allowed us to board our free Christmas flight first, and place all of our carry on bags in the overhead compartments. Many people had to check their bags because it was a completely full flight. I enjoy the convenience it provides.
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