1mo ago

Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit

https://x.com/SenSanders/status/1857527478715031865

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Might be my background - lived half my life in a country where credit cards are interest-free for religious purposes - but 10% still seems insane.
- Compare that to the ~30% I've seen, that's sadly an amazing shift (lol, which won't ever happen with the fascist caucus), but I commend Bernie for trying.
- I'd never heard of this, how do the banks make any money on the card, annual fees or something?
  
  They already make 2-3% on every purchase
  
  That’s a good point - there are transaction fees that could support the business. And we even inflate those with cash back and other rewards
  
  No, they don't charge higher transaction fees in order to pay those reward rates, they just give up on making any profit from that and instead try to profit from charging interest. Which of course is disproportionately paid from people who cannot actually afford it.
  
  Which is an insane return by itself if people use their cards for everything, as they do in the US.
  
  No, we had a flat annual fee for usage. There was a fee for withdrawing cash but no making purchases.
  
  The merchant is charged the fee, not you directly as the cardholder. It's already figured into the price if they accept cards.
  
  Credit cards companies have a merchant fee, ussually around 2%.
  
  It was illegal for vendors to charge a fee for card purchases, so if that was the case then they maybe just raised their prices.
  
  Iirc, surcharging is only illegal in 4 states. However, theres a loop hole in thise states, giving a discount on cash purchases arent considered a surcharge...
  
  Processing or transaction fees. Anytime you use your card for a purchase the bank gets a cut of that. This fee can range from .1% to 4%, depending on the credit card processor.
  
  Yes, we had a flat annual fee for use.
- Which country has interest free credit cards due to religious purposes? I googled it but did not find anything.
  
  I know that is how Saudi Arabia works. Other sharia countries do the same too, from what I am to understand.
  
  Malaysia and Indonesia come to mind.
  
  Usury is forbidden (haram) in Islam, so many Muslim majority countries do in fact do this.

137 comments