[healsjnr1]

Points for most people are a zero sum or losing game.

I worked for a points loyalty program, and the customer always pays. The bank knows their market well, they know the redemption rate of points for different demographics and they set the annual fees on points earning cards appropriately.

For a small number of very diligent points hack customers, the bank loses money on this and the customer wins. For a larger proportion customers get back roughly what they paid in fees.

Then for the remainder the points eventually get written off or redeemed for value that is far lower than the fees they paid.

[cheschire]

It’s so painless on the Apple Card. Automatic x% back into an Apple Cash account depending on the specifics of the purchase (phone vs card, Apple store vs other store).

When you pay off the card, it can automatically debit the Apple Cash account first. Basically all my purchases are 1% cheaper on that card than my other ones. Sure, spending $9,900 instead of $10,000 doesn’t sound like much, but it’s painless free money.

[smichel17]

That "free" money comes from fees paid by the seller to the credit card company, and is passed along to you in the form of higher prices. Unfortunately, paying cash seldom lets you opt out of these credit card driven price increases.

[xadhominemx]

Are you talking about credit card loyalty programs? Because those are definitely not zero sum for consumers as merchants for pay them.

[0xffff2]

In the US at least, no annual fee credit cards offering cash back or points are plentiful.