reward programs

Despite the growing trends to use plastic credit and debit cards, Australia remains to be a cash-based society. The dominant position of cash has been found by Reserve Bank of Australia in the study of consumer payment behavior which reports the use of cash for 70% of all transactions. The use of cash to make the low value payments under $10 and 75% of payments for goods worth between $11 and $25 give such a dominant position to cash.

U.S. credit card issuers, including Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Capital One Financial Corp, are cutting reward programs, raising interest rates and increasing fees in order to cover their costs.

Not a long time ago Citigroup, the nation's largest credit card issuer, had been offering up to $100 in gift cards for enrolling in its "Thank You Rewards" program.