Gas prices hit $4.07 per gallon and the financial media wants you to know about rewards programs. Perfect timing. Nothing says investigative journalism like a listicle that reads like a sponsored post from Chase.
The national average is the highest on record for August. Your move as a consumer is apparently to sign up for a credit card with a 22% APR so you can earn 3% back on fuel. The math works if you ignore the math. But you won't ignore it because you're responsible and you pay off your balance every month. Sure you do. That's why consumer credit card debt just hit $1.14 trillion.
The article promises to help you save on rising fuel costs. Here's how that works. You apply for a card. You get approved or denied based on a credit score generated by an algorithm you don't understand. If approved, you spend money you may or may not have to earn points worth fractions of pennies. Then you redeem those points for statement credits that expire if you don't read the terms. You just saved fourteen dollars over six months. Time to celebrate.
Gas is expensive because of supply chain issues and geopolitical tensions and refining capacity and a dozen other factors that have nothing to do with whether you're using the right Mastercard. But the solution offered here is not to address any of that. The solution is to optimize your debt instrument selection.
Retail traders see this headline and think they're being helped. They're learning a life hack. They're beating the system by using the system exactly as the system wants them to use it. They'll spend the next weekend comparing annual fees and signup bonuses and cash back tiers like they're cracking the Da Vinci Code. Then they'll drive to Costco to save four cents a gallon and spend an hour in line doing it.
The real savings come from not driving. But that won't earn points.
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