• Chee_Koala@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I have a CC while being an EU citizen. Main reason is calamity while traveling, it’s just accepted at so many places so it could bail me out. I still buy 99,99 % of my stuff debit though, I don’t need most purchases ensured, also i don’t like doing my finances one month behind, I like it one month ahead, so paying my CC bills after 30 days is a net negative for me.

        Do I understand correctly that ‘cashback’ is the fact that if you return stuff, you get the refund cash and not wired to your account/digitally put back on the debit card? If so, can you explain the importance of that for your situation? If not, could you explain to me what ‘cashback’ means in this context?

        • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca
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          3 days ago

          No, cashback is literally a “use this credit card and we’ll give you 1% of your money back as a reward” then they charge the vendor 3% to process the transaction.

          • Hastur@lemmy.ca
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            1 day ago

            but you can easily get more than 1%. You can easily get 4% for stuff like gas and groceries. It adds up to quite a bit over the course of a year

            • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca
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              1 day ago

              Yes and no, those rewards increase the prices charged by the retailer.

              Then the credit card company’s ban charging extra to cover that.

              It’s inherently a monopolistic exploit.

        • ploot@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          3 days ago

          I’m not the person you were asking, but:

          Cash back credit cards reward you by refunding a percentage of your purchases made using the card. You can use this refund as a credit towards your monthly balance or as cash deposited into your bank account. Some cards offer a flat percentage on all purchases, while others offer higher percentages on select categories.

          Source: https://www.ratehub.ca/blog/best-cash-back-credit-cards-in-canada/

          Of course, they wouldn’t be doing this if you weren’t paying them at least the refunded amount somewhere else - through fees, or through people’s average interest payments, or through price increases applied by the stores to cover the fees they pay to the credit card companies.