Earn What You Spend

From the WSJ: 

As part of a sweeping bill to change the rules for credit cards, a pair of senators are pushing to lift constraints that Visa, MasterCard and other credit card networks impose on merchants’ ability to offer discounts for paying by cash or check.

Retailers have long chafed under the restrictions, which make it burdensome for them to make transparent to consumers the fees they pay to credit card companies. Those fees amount to tens of billions of dollars a year. The result, they complain, is that cash-paying customers unfairly end up sharing the cost of letting other customers buy on credit.

I do feel a tinge of guilt using a credit card at a small mom and pop stores - in these cases, I try to use cash if I can.  Credit card processing fees can add up, and - as any small business owner knows - those little expenditures really matter. 

Virtually everywhere else, though, I use a credit card: I can automatically track what I purchased, I have a certain amount of protection against purchasing a faulty product, I get airline points, and I can manage cash flow.  Those are all extremely positive attributes - and they remain positive if you pay off our balance at the end of the month.  But would it be worth paying a bit more for a product for that convenience?  I’m not sure. 

More details here.