[bumblebird]

If you're clever, you find the merchants affiliate scheme, sign up, check it's ok to place orders through your own affiliate links, and place an order.

Then there's no middle man and you get all the discount. Hassle for cheaper items, but worth it for bigger stuff.

I once signed up to get a 0% rate credit card (first 6 months) that gave cash back on purchases. I signed up through my affiliate link that paid out something like £40, had a few K of credit for 6 months, and got cashback on everything I bought using it. Then I cancelled it. I expect they hate customers like that.

[bdr]

I doubt they're giving you more in cashback than they make from transaction fees.

[jrockway]

They might be. For every person that implements this trick, there are 100 more that are making only the minimum payment every month and paying thousands of dollars in interest (free money).

[pyre]

I thought that most credit card companies sold off this debt for Wall Street to repackage.

[bumblebird]

True, I'm pretty sure I was a nett loss for them though. As said by another comment, they rely on most people not doing this.

[dangrossman]

Every single store you shop at pays an extra 1-2% when you make a purchase with that card. Reward cards result in a higher discount fee for the merchant to cover the rewards the bank pays out.

[barrkel]

There is an opportunity cost in the money forgone by lending it to this "deadbeat", as a CC company might term him.