[randomdata]

Credit cards make money on the transaction side, so they don't need you to pay interest to make money. Simply borrowing against your credit card (i.e. performing transactions) is sufficient to keep them happy, and they 'reward' you with a higher score as a result.

At the end of the day, a credit score indicates how profitable you will be as a customer for a lender. Showing profitability for a lender in a past indicates that you will likely be profitable in the future as well. Thus, in effect, you do have to buy your score, although the method of purchase may not always be straightforward.

[nightski]

I understand how credit cards work. I also get a lot more out of that transaction fee than just a credit score, so I am OK with it. But my point was just that you don't have to pay interest, it wasn't really about any of that.

[N1H1L]

Yeah this whole credit score conversation going on in this thread is very weird. Has nobody here bought a car or applied for a loan ever?

And how is Bitcoin going to tell whether you default on loans or not?

[randomdata]

Practically speaking, transaction fees are interest, you just pay it in a roundabout way.

[nightski]

I hate to keep this thread going, but they are more interest on cash payments than anything (due to increased prices) but with the card I get most of that money back in rewards and security (can have transactions disputed on demand and have them instantly removed).

[randomdata]

That was a fun tangent, for sure, but it remains that you are indeed paying interest, if not directly, in a roundabout way. Credit card companies would not provide you with those benefits if you did not provide them with revenue to justify the cost of the benefits plus some margin of profitability. Nothing in the world is free. At the end of the day, your credit score is bought, as the original topic of this thread asserted.