[rjmunro]

Amex doesn't count - they run their own system end to end and charge retailers stupidly high fees. That's why most retailers don't take them.

As for rewards on MC and Visa, which card are you on? In my experience, either the rewards are very small, or they are for specific retailers only, where the Bank has done a deal directly with the merchant. Occasionally they are a loss leader for the bank, working on the principle that you are

The article is wrong about the UK capping interchange fees. Removing the EU cap was one of the first EU rules that the government decided to abolish after Brexit. At one point it meant you weren't going to be able to use a Visa card with Amazon, you'd have to switch to Mastercard.

[erincandescent]

The UK didn't scrap the Interchange Fees Regulation; but as a matter of law there became two separate IFRs, one covering the EEA-cards-in-EEA and one covering UK-cards-in-UK

(To put it bluntly, a big amendment was automatically applied to most UK laws on exit day replacing EU & EEA with UK; and of course in the EU the definition of both of those words changed)

[Larrikin]

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/credit-cards/best-credit-card...

If you are in the US and aren't getting atleast 2 to 5 percent back on all your credit card transactions, you have a bad mix of credit cards

[no1lives4ever]

Chase offers a cashback card. Here is a link to their T&C: https://www.chase.co.uk/gb/en/legal/Cashback-FAQs/

[uf00lme]

Amex is a different model, their customers are card holders and not businesses. In their view of the world businesses must pay to access their customers.

It will be interesting to see Google or Apple's long term play in this market, I would love it if they started providing banking services. Just so it interrupts the currently market where the middle men provide little to no real value to the general public.

[maxerickson]

Amex has credit cards with no annual fees, they have the same incentives as other networks and issuers.

[uf00lme]

Their no fee cards are not their primary card base. As a vertical provider, they simply charge merchants more, and use that money to look after their customers more so than other majors. In general try to do a charge back with Amex vs other majors and watch what happens. Amex usually screws merchants more much than other payers, at least in APAC and EMEA. I don’t know American markets as much but I assume the model holds true.

[throwaway426079]

All the rewards I've ever had were points or cashback at or below 2% of spend. These are/were all zero annual fee cards - there might be more rewards at higher tiers.