"Ethics" of credit card spending

ircE

I'd be interested to see what conclusions, if any, OP has drawn from this discussion.

As a previous poster alluded to, whilst there may or may not be direct consequences of you using a specific credit card in a specific way, there is a more general question of 'feeding the beast' of predatory financial capitalism; the financial institution issuing the card makes money from the borrowers who fail to repay on time. I don't like that, but I try not to think about it as I cash in my cashback rewards from my own credit card usage as well as hopefully some benefit to my credit history and S.75 protection in case things go wrong. 

I currently hold credit cards with financial institutions considered more 'ethical' than others - Co-operative Bank and Nationwide Building Society - as well as one not so ethical - Barclays. I got the Barclaycard Rewards card this year as I was seeking a cashback credit card for overseas spending and ultimately thought Barclays wouldn't derive any profit from me given how I intended to use it. In fact I've actually made a fair bit of money from them thanks to buying LNER tickets through their separate rewards programme. That programme is dying evolving at the moment so I'll wait and see what comes of it and see what the competition is at that point...

WillPS

ircE said:

Barclays wouldn't derive any profit from me given how I intended to use it. In fact I've actually made a fair bit of money from them thanks to buying LNER tickets through their separate rewards programme. That programme is dying evolving at the moment so I'll wait and see what comes of it and see what the competition is at that point...

Bad assumption there - the way these schemes work typically is that only part of the commission, half typically, goes to the customer. The rest is shared by the issuer and the affiliate marketing company that provides the scheme. The commission will come from the brand in question, not Barclays.

Barclays will certainly have made something from this; likely more than any other UK spend you've done.

Incidentally this is why issuers are pushing these "on-card cashback" schemes so hard, they represent one of the only ways they can make money from UK consumers who do not pay interest. (Another is overseas spend, hence the rapid rise in the zero FX category!)