No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
I think it is laughable for these banks to cry poverty. They are making a killing on swipe fees. Also, some people are probably paying annual fees, interest, and other fees. I find it hard to believe that the product in their current form is losing them money. I think they believe that they can have even better margins, so they decided to make the changes.
My biggest qualm is that they changed too many things at once. As an aspiring business owner, I respect their desire to make profits. I just don't see a problem with offering a product that is far superior to others so I can build customer loyalty and hopefully increase my number of customers. I dislike the mentality of capitalism that we need to cut corners and give customers less all in the name of profit.
@FutureBillionaire wrote:I think it is laughable for these banks to cry poverty. They are making a killing on swipe fees. Also, some people are probably paying annual fees, interest, and other fees. I find it hard to believe that the product in their current form is losing them money. I think they believe that they can have even better margins, so they decided to make the changes.
My biggest qualm is that they changed too many things at once. As an aspiring business owner, I respect their desire to make profits. I just don't see a problem with offering a product that is far superior to others so I can build customer loyalty and hopefully increase my number of customers. I dislike the mentality of capitalism that we need to cut corners and give customers less all in the name of profit.
Good luck with your campaign!
I for one hope you are successful. I'd love nothing more than to use their bill pay 5% and charge all my insurance premiums for the 5% rebate. Though the swipe fee they charge is around 2% - 2.5%, I think they should rebate me the full 5% anyway.
After all, to win my business from Chase and Amex, they have to do something! Actually, they better increase the year end bonus for me, otherwise I'll only usurp them for my isolated 5%, because Chase and Amex are still infinitely superior to them in rewards for my general non bonus spending.
I think this is fair for me.
PS - Can we petition them to raise the limit to at least $30K? I'd like to maximize my 5% insurance premiums. Also, let's add in a property tax category, I could use that too!
@FutureBillionaire wrote:I think it is laughable for these banks to cry poverty. They are making a killing on swipe fees. Also, some people are probably paying annual fees, interest, and other fees. I find it hard to believe that the product in their current form is losing them money. I think they believe that they can have even better margins, so they decided to make the changes.
My biggest qualm is that they changed too many things at once. As an aspiring business owner, I respect their desire to make profits. I just don't see a problem with offering a product that is far superior to others so I can build customer loyalty and hopefully increase my number of customers. I dislike the mentality of capitalism that we need to cut corners and give customers less all in the name of profit.
I think most of us agree that they changed too many things at once. But, I believe (= guess) that this probably was an overreaction to indeed losing money on the card. I think if they were merely trying to increase profits they would change fewer things, to see if the market share wasn't impacted too much. This smacks more of "OMG, we need to fix this NOW!" type of panic. Earlier measures like restricting this to branch application also suggest this, that would be counter-productive if the goal was just to increase profit, if the card is profitable you want to maximize customers.
Swipe fees cover 1 and 2% spending, but not 5% spending. And given all that has been discussed already (the ability to select and keep categories, the lack of a cap and some categories with very high potential spend) it's easy for me to believe that US Bank is losing on this card overall. The card was really promoted for the 5% stuff, so I doubt if they have a lot of users doing mainly 1%
What about the BCP cap? Do you think there wasn't a problem there?
@jsucool76 wrote:
Moral of the story...
They have the right to change the rewards whenever they want, if you don't like the changes, close the account. Lol.
Well, Future B also has the right to get them to try and change their minds. It's just that his arguments don't seem very strong!
@Open123 wrote:
@FutureBillionaire wrote:I think it is laughable for these banks to cry poverty. They are making a killing on swipe fees. Also, some people are probably paying annual fees, interest, and other fees. I find it hard to believe that the product in their current form is losing them money. I think they believe that they can have even better margins, so they decided to make the changes.
My biggest qualm is that they changed too many things at once. As an aspiring business owner, I respect their desire to make profits. I just don't see a problem with offering a product that is far superior to others so I can build customer loyalty and hopefully increase my number of customers. I dislike the mentality of capitalism that we need to cut corners and give customers less all in the name of profit.
Good luck with your campaign!
I for one hope you are successful. I'd love nothing more than to use their bill pay 5% and charge all my insurance premiums for the 5% rebate. Though the swipe fee they charge is around 2% - 2.5%, I think they should rebate me the full 5% anyway.
After all, to win my business from Chase and Amex, they have to do something! Actually, they better increase the year end bonus for me, otherwise I'll only usurp them for my isolated 5%, because Chase and Amex are still infinitely superior to them in rewards for my general non bonus spending.
I think this is fair for me.
PS - Can we petition them to raise the limit to at least $30K? I'd like to maximize my 5% insurance premiums. Also, let's add in a property tax category, I could use that too!
Your sarcasm is refreshing. That's my type of language. If they are making money per transaction, they probabliy end up even in terms of total dollars. I'm not sure, but it is possible. If folks use their Cash + card exclusively for all of their purchases due to the 2% and the 1% bonus, they can still turn a profit. I would like to see the numbers.
As greedy as banks are, are we sure that they are dumb enough to launch a product uncapped with so much high potential spending without doing their due diligence to make sure it could be profitable? They didn't anticipate that the bill pay would be a hot button category and potentially abused? My argument is weak only if US Bank is in fact losing money. I don't think that is the case.
@bs6054 wrote:
@FutureBillionaire wrote:I think it is laughable for these banks to cry poverty. They are making a killing on swipe fees. Also, some people are probably paying annual fees, interest, and other fees. I find it hard to believe that the product in their current form is losing them money. I think they believe that they can have even better margins, so they decided to make the changes.
My biggest qualm is that they changed too many things at once. As an aspiring business owner, I respect their desire to make profits. I just don't see a problem with offering a product that is far superior to others so I can build customer loyalty and hopefully increase my number of customers. I dislike the mentality of capitalism that we need to cut corners and give customers less all in the name of profit.
What about the BCP cap? Do you think there wasn't a problem there?
I hated the BCP change. But, I didn't complain because they didn't totally destroy the rewards. They let us keep the 6%, but added the cap. I'm ok with that. I've said this whole time that I would be ok with the changes if they kept the categories and added caps. This card is essentially the same as the others out there on the market. They can make money with this card, and so can we for that matter, if they keep the categories and add the caps. I would be more apt to use this card for the 1 and 2 percent categories if they kept all of the existing categories and implemented caps. I would have to because I wouldn't be able to charge as many bills to the card. I will admit that I didn't carry this card before because I always put all of my bills on there throughout the month. I'm going to use it for smaller purchases now, which will help them get swipe fees. Overall, I won't put as much cash through it though. They will get 2% of very small purchases from me now.
@FutureBillionaire wrote:As greedy as banks are, are we sure that they are dumb enough to launch a product uncapped with so much high potential spending without doing their due diligence to make sure it could be profitable? They didn't anticipate that the bill pay would be a hot button category and potentially abused? My argument is weak only if US Bank is in fact losing money. I don't think that is the case.
Yes, big banks are pretty dumb.
Seriously, they are always reactive, and can't implement any kind of forward thinking at all. Take Citibank, for example. Text book case of a very large global bank making some of the dumbest and most stupid decisions we've ever seen.
@Open123 wrote:
@FutureBillionaire wrote:As greedy as banks are, are we sure that they are dumb enough to launch a product uncapped with so much high potential spending without doing their due diligence to make sure it could be profitable? They didn't anticipate that the bill pay would be a hot button category and potentially abused? My argument is weak only if US Bank is in fact losing money. I don't think that is the case.
Yes, big banks are pretty dumb.
Seriously, they are always reactive, and can't implement any kind of forward thinking at all. Take Citibank, for example. Text book case of a very large global bank making some of the dumbest and most stupid decisions we've ever seen.
I guess this is why we have to bail out banks with tax payer money. We can agree to disagree Open. I respect your views and I think you are very articulate. I enjoy a good debate.