Americans have been made totally neurotic with card rewards. My mom will dither for probably 10-15 seconds every time she pays for something, which card to put that particular transaction on, in order to extract the best points. Restaurants get a better kickback on card A, gas on card B, airline tickets on card C. It's crazy I hate it.
This is why merchants get hit with anywhere from 2% to 5% fees and have no idea which card cost them so much. And why friends say they're "losing money" if they don't play this game. It's fakaked.
If their efforts were actually productive, which they aren't, it wouldn't bother me so much. Their reward depends on everyone else paying higher costs but not getting the reward
The whole shenanigans is only possible because the issuers have a monopoly where the merchant can't charge the true cost of a transition to each specific consumer. If the consumer was paying for his own kickback, the whole party would end. It works because of obfuscation and free loading off others, especially those who pay by debit card and cash.
This is why merchants get hit with anywhere from 2% to 5% fees and have no idea which card cost them so much. And why friends say they're "losing money" if they don't play this game. It's fakaked.