The Science of Communicating & Marketing Your Business

Every time you make a credit card purchase this company is going to round up your purchase amount the next highest dollar amount, take that roundup amount and deposit it to your savings account. That way, they're helping you save money.

WHAT???

1. I go to a store and buy something.
2. Let's say it costs US$23.95.
3. I charge it on this credit card company's card.
4. This credit card company rounds up my purchase to an even US$24.00.
5. They charge me US$24.00 for my US$23.95 purchase.
6. On top of that markup, I'm going to pay interest on US$24.00, not US$23.95.
7. This credit card company is going to deposit that US$0.05 into my savings account.
8. Let's back this up a second;
   • US$0.05 goes into my savings account...
   • which is getting, if I'm lucky, 1/2% interest,
   • and I'm going to be charged and pay interest on US$24.00
   • and the interest I'm paying on the US$24.00 purchase is probably between 9-22%.

• in a given year I'll have deposited maybe US$300 to my savings account
• I'll have maybe US$15-20k in charges on my credit card bill.
• A portion of that will be roundups.
• The actual earnings increase in my savings account might be US$1.00 if that much.
• The actual finance charges on that US$1.00 will be somewhere around US$7,000.00.

I'll be speaking at the San Francisco April '07 Emetrics Summit on Quantifying and Optimizing the Human Side of Online Marketing on May 7, 2007. Come on by and say hello.