They mean the rewards. You can get some % cash back with no annual fee. Effectively my credit card costs me nothing, comes from the same bank as my checking and savings, and gives me cash back.

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dymk 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I know what they mean, the “rewards” are not free

	▲	smt88 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Credit cards are an interest-free loan of 1-2 months. That’s literally free money. The rewards are also free to me in the sense that the merchant pays them. If the merchant has priced them in, then the rewards aren’t free, but using cash is throwing away something I’m still paying for.

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GuinansEyebrows 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

the other end of this is that all of those rewards are paid for through merchant fees, which lead to higher prices at the register. it's not free money. it's a fraction of a percentage of the profit credit card companies receive in fees paid by the places you shop. i would not be surprised to learn that even with rewards points we spend more money now that those programs are commonplace.

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phoghed 16 hours ago | parent [-]

Still worth it so I can chargeback shitty merchants.

Example, my landlord specified in my original lease one time pet fee. In my newest year lease no pet fee. I was required to pay the pet fee through some saas dedicated to this. Now that website emailed me to let me know they’ll be charging my annual fee.

What fee? What for? They are providing no ongoing value to anyone as far as I can tell. They refuse to explain or cancel. Well they can explain to Mastercard and I’ll wash my hands of the situation.

	▲	inigyou 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Update: this guy was evicted 3 hours ago for doing a chargeback.