Rockler Visa Card

Did anyone else make good use of the Rockler Visa card that earned points toward purchases at Rockler? For some reason they ended the program this month. Thanx to buying a college education for my son with the card, I cashed in for a 'free' Leigh jig, Delta mortiser, Oneway Talon chuck, Vega Fence, and an assortment of other items. Could be a good gloat. I wonder why they ended the program.

Reply to
SteveC
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Gee, I can't imagine why.

That's one hell of a good gloat. Color me jealous.

Reply to
Kat Burright

Because guys like you killed it?

Reply to
Doug Miller

With college costs of $20K a year, if Steve spent $80,000 using his Rockler-branded card, and got all that "free" material, it's not his fault that Rockler didn't make a profit. They're the ones who came up with the business model.

If they expected that people with a Rockler card would ONLY use the card at Rockler's, that was a bad assumption to on Rockler's part.

Reply to
Bruce Barnett

No, it wasn't because guys like the OP killed the program. Rockler and Mastercard get a percentage of every sale he charges. So they want him to use the card for everything.

Naturally, Rockler and Mastercard are going to give him back less than they are getting when he charges stuff. That's the point, to make a profit off the program.. The rewards are just an incentive to get the customer to use the card as much as possible.

In fact, the program was probably discontinued because there wasn't enough people like the OP that charged everything. They need a certain number of customers in order to pay the overhead, etc. I'm guessing the card wasn't as popular as they hoped.

The card companies want you to charge everything on their card. Even if you pay the balance off fully every month, they still make money.

Reply to
bf

Which is exactly what I meant when I suggested that guys like him killed it: that such usage forced them to realize that they had build their business model around some bad assumptions, and so they terminated the program before it could do them any more damage than it already had.

Reply to
Doug Miller

No disrespect Doug, I enjoy your posts. Don't take this personally, but I worked for a credit card issuer for quite a while. Trust me, they are thrilled if someone charges 80k or whatever the OP charged. The rewards system is set up so they can't possibly lose money. I'm not familiar with the Rockler system, but I can guarantee you the business model was set up so they didn't lose money when people cashed in their bonuses.

Most likely, the program was changed because some MBA at top figured it wasn't profitable enough or there wasn't enough customer participation to justify keeping it going. (Probably the latter). I can guarantee you that Rocker and Mastercard made a profit off the OP, even if he paid all his bills on time. That's the way credit cards work, they make money everytime you charge something. The store pays MasterCard a little bit of money for the privilledge of letting customers use the card at their store.

Reply to
bf

Thanks for the explanation.

Reply to
Doug Miller

You bought your son a college education on a credit card? Why?

If you went with a different financing scheme, you probably could have got yourself the college, those tools, and a new car. Unless you've got something really nice worked out with the credit card company, that is.

Or even better, let the boy pay student loan bills like most folks. Even if you made the payments for him, they're only 1-2% interest.

Reply to
Prometheus

Woodworker's Supply has a similiar program. I hope they aren't planning on doing the same thing.

J. Coffey

Reply to
J Coffey

Because I could. I paid in installments without interest or penalties or any hidden finance charges or premiums. They charged my visa card monthly and I paid monthly.

Reply to
SteveC

O.K., they made money. Then why do I read elsewhere that CC issuers don't particularly like people that pay off each month (avoiding interest charges) and refer to those people as "deadbeats?"

There was a recent story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel where in the writer was looking to get an account with a very low interest rate, but was turned down when she revealed that she didn't have at least $2,500 to do a balance transfer to the new account.

Sometimes I don't "get" the games they play.

Reply to
George Max

Woodcraft offers a VISA card now. I don't know if they have a cash back scheme for it. It'd be nice.

Reply to
George Max

I just checked. 0% for a year on purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 billing cycles, 1% back on non Woodcraft purchases, 4% on purchases made at Woodcraft with it. And a $20 Woodcraft coupon sent to you with your approved credit card.

Hey, I might be paraphrasing this a bit, I'm just reporting (mostly) the information I found.

Reply to
George Max

George Max wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Yes, We were deadbeats. We applied for a card issued by 'Shoprite', a not too bad market in NY/NJ. We were refused the card for the reason that we didn't maintain a high enough unpaid balance. Prior to that we had a General Motors sponsored card. I forget the exact percentage that would go towards the purchase of a GM car, but it was substantial. We charged every thing we possibly could on that card; food, medical, two beers at a time, etc. We even tried to charge our mortgage (didn't work). Being deadbeats, we paid the full balance each month. We bought a '96 Bonneville and when after all the dikering was over, we presented the dealer with the the $4800 credit we had from the card. He didn't blink an eye, but said it was limited to $3500. He was correct so I used the remainder for my truck a bit later. The next year the credit card sponsor required a hefty fee for the card and placed a fairly small limit on how much could go towards a car. Never used the card after that. These folks are not in business to help us. Their business is to make money, pure and simple. Our business is to make our money buy as much as it can, pure and simple. Do it to them if you can, if not they will do it to you. Somebody was losing money (ROI as not expected). Hank (deadbeat)

Reply to
Henry St.Pierre

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