Originally Posted by
pinniped
We are obviously a very profitable segment: why else would the card companies offer us hundreds of dollars in benefits simply to accept their credit cards? It's because most of us go on to use the cards a lot, generating merchant fees. The few of us who churn heavily to game the system might get nipped in the bud a little bit, but given how much custom software development it would take to isolate points/miles churners (without nipping out the profitable customers simply attracted to points and miles) I can't imagine all banks being able to do this.
The brunt of the "cost" of the points that we all get is borne by the folks who don't realize that when they are carrying a balance the points they are getting for "free" are costing them a ton of money. That is where the profit margins are for the banks. The bill appears to be limiting the (possibly usurious) rates that some CC companies charge to some customers. That is a good thing for the economy as a whole but has a potential to hurt the churning crowd.
I'm actually completely OK with that happening. I generally love to play the games, too (though I don't churn the CCs) but the money is coming from somewhere and that is something that has to be considered when deciding whether a change like this is good or bad. It may hurt mileage earning potential in some scenarios but that doesn't necessarily make it bad overall.
And, no, I'm not a huge fan of the government legislating against stupidity, but sometimes it happens and we all learn to live with it.