by paying for them with the Blue Cash Preferred
Card from American Express, that’s just $26.62 in
rewards per year.
And that doesn’t take into account the card’s $95
annual fee. When choosing any rewards card,
look for categories that match your spending
enough to offset that cost.
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH
YOUNGER SPENDERS
Per the Deloitte survey, 70% of Gen Z
households (ages 14 to 20) had a streaming
subscription in 2017, as did 68% of millennial
households (ages 21 to 34).
Experts say credit card issuers see an
opportunity here to lure customers while they’re
young, rewarding them for the spending they’re
doing anyway while also converting them into
long-term cardholders.
“As the consumer gets older, and presumably
begins to spend more, the credit card company
has already secured their business,” Allec says.
Subscription services can give these
relationships staying power, too, because they’re
typically “set it and forget it” transactions. If
an issuer can get you to use its card as your
automated payment method each month,
you’re more likely to keep it — even if you never
take the card out of your wallet.
“Credit card companies want consumers
to choose their cards for subscriptions as
it’s a regular — often monthly — recurring
transaction that they can rely on as a base of
card spend,” says Derek Szeto , co-founder of
Butter , a tool that helps consumers track and
manage subscriptions.
“Active cards are sticky cards.”