…and the horse you rode in on.

So now the credit card companies consider me a deadbeat.  And since the slice they take from the merchants every time I make a credit card purchase isn’t enough for them to cover their expenses, they’re going to cut out rewards and cashbacks, and start charging annual fees. 

You wanna see deadbeat?  The first time I get an annual fee notice, I’m cancelling the card.  Mr Visa and Mr MasterCard get zippo when I pay cash–and I’ll start asking Mr Merchant for a cash discount, too. 

This is going to cost business bigtime–fewer card holders means fewer impulsive or "nice to have" purchases by the 50 million solvent folks.  I expect a lot of going-out-of-business sales, where cash will be king.

Update (21 May).  Lots of discussion over at Ann Althouse, but most of it is cheap wine or dope-in the-dorm talk.  Let’s wait and see if the banks have the nerve to start charging an annual deadbeat fee.