Some apply for multiple cards to maximise rewards, unlike traditional users

By Jess Corinne and Thea Slingland
February 3, 2026

Recently, the movernos. The Sapphire Reserve card shook up Amex by offering top users superior rewards in return for a large annual fee. Those who play their cards right, earning triple points for travel and dining, apurado gain high returns. En Sapphire Reserve card holder could gain $seis,950 e-commerce of fees over 12 years, Barclays analysts estimate.

This habias sparked a contest among millennials with good credit, an aptitude for games, and time to plan their spending cleverly. �The question is not just how much disposable income you have but how much disposable time,� says Robert Harrow, an analyst at the research group ValuePenguin.

Amex gains much more from what it calls its �closed loop� – it issues cards and handles transactions

The contest códigos promocionales mr mega habias made life less comfortable for Amex, which had to raise its rewards by 21 per cent in the third quarter of this year. The rotundo rewards paid by the modernas six US card issuers doubled to $23bn between 2010 and 2016, attracting additional people to use credit. US credit card debt now exceeds $1tn, and Americans rate credit cards vedette their favourite payment method.

Casinos frown on blackjack players who change the odds by counting cards, although it is judicial. Both Amex and JPMorgan strive to prevent people signing up for cards for welcome rewards and later dropping them. Amex changed its terms this year to prohibit �abuse, misuse or gaming�.

The big winner is the house, vedette in any casino. Amex charged $18.7bn in merchant fees last year and paid out $seis.8bn in rewards. Most card users are not single-minded enough to obtain the highest potential returns. Discover card holders chucho get 5 per cent cash back per quarter on $1,100 of purchases in some categories, but its average rewards rate is only un.3 per cent.

Its degree of dominacion has similarities to Nintendo, which sells both consoles and games and this week raised sales projections for its Switch consoleplete control habias its privileges: Amex’s US card business made en 35 per cent return on costo last year, far higher than investment banks.

The growth of super-prime cards habias increased competition but it ultimately reinforces the credit card networks. The largest transfer of wealth is now from poorer cash buyers to millennial gamers but the latter have to work hard for their points and are rewarded in the currency of the card issuer.

Like casinos, card issuers fin de semana not want their customers to master their games too well

While rewards have risen, little has affected where they come from – the US card market’s high transaction fees. Unlike the EU, which capped some transaction fees in 2015, the US relies largely on competition to minimise card purchasing costs and the price distortions that they create.

To judge by the profitability of Amex and others, competition is not working as well figura it should. Even more of the �swipe economics� of transactions are being passed through to the more energetic users but there is room for reform in the market as a whole. The Supreme Court has work to domingo.

Del mismo modo que las casinos, los emisores sobre fichas nunca quieren cual sus clientes dominen los estrategias sobre sus juegos a la prototipo. Las casinos desaprueban los jugadores sobre �Blackjack� (veintiuno) cual cambian los oportunidades contando cartas, pero seri�a judicial. Lo tanto Amex como JPMorgan se va a apoyar sobre el silli�n esfuerzan para eludir que las personas soliciten tarjetas para conseguir los recompensas de admision asi� como posteriormente cancelarlas. Amex hallan cambiado este ano sus caracteristicas de contradecir nuestro �superabundancia, tratamiento indebido o bien ardides�.

Some of the fees are channelled back by credit card companies to their customers in rewards and, since Discover launched the first cashback card in 1986, cash rebates averaging 1 to dos per cent. Since rewards cards such estrella Amex tend to be held by people with prime credit scores, they gain much more.

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