You'll often find him traveling.

你常常會發現他在旅遊。

I've been to Ghana now ten times.

我去迦納去了十次。

I got to visit Liberia.

我得以去賴比瑞亞旅遊。

Took my parents to South Africa.

帶父母去南非。

I love flying Emirates first class — it's gaudy, it's gold.

我超愛搭乘阿聯酋航空的頭等艙—又華麗，又金碧輝煌。

You get caviar, and I have never paid for it.

你可以享用魚子醬，而且我一毛錢都沒付過。

So Brian traveled to all these places basically for free. And he did it using credit card rewards.

所以，Brian 基本上都是免費去這些地方旅遊的，而他是利用信用卡的回饋福利。

Banks promise offers like cashback, bonus miles, and cash bonuses to get you to sign up and spend.

銀行承諾提供現金回饋、里程數紅利，以及現金紅利，吸引你辦卡與消費。

And it's rewards like these that people like Brian have become masters at maximizing.

正是因為這類的回饋，像 Brian 的人就得以變成「物盡其用」的專家。

Ultimately though, someone is paying for these credit card rewards.

然後最終，一定有人在支付這些信用卡回饋福利。

And there's a hidden battle going on over their future.

面對未來，背後有一場 (各家銀行的) 隱性的戰爭。

During the Great Recession, some of the biggest US banks — Wells Fargo, JP Morgan and Bank of America — had a problem.

在經濟大衰退期間，一些美國規模最大的銀行—富國銀行、摩根大通銀行與美國銀行都面臨難題。

They weren't making as much money from mortgages.

它們從借貸款上賺取的利潤不如往常。

So they shifted their business to credit cards.

所以它們將重心轉移到信用卡身上。

And in order to get customers to sign up and spend on their cards they offered bigger and better rewards.

為了吸引顧客辦卡，並用自家信用卡消費，它們提供更大、更好的回饋。

"In 2011 we saw our first ever 100,000 point offer, Chase offered on a British Airways Visa.

2011 年時，我們第一次累積到一萬點的回饋，大通銀行提供英國航空的簽證。

100,000 points for a credit card.

一張信用卡累積到一萬點。

Wild!

超狂！

And really I think what JP Morgan/Chase was doing was thinking we gotta focus more on consumer lending and not just on that corporate lending or even mortgages.

而且我真的認為，摩根大通旗下的大通銀行就是欲把重心放更多在消費者借貸，而不只侷限企業借貸或抵押借款。

As banks expanded rewards, more people starting using rewards cards.

當銀行增加更多獎勵時，越來越多人開始使用回饋卡。

By 2018, 92% of all credit card purchases were made on rewards credit cards.

截至 2018 年，92% 的信用卡消費都是使用回饋信用卡的消費。

That's up from just 67% in 2008.

2008 年才 67% 而已。

But it's not the banks that ultimately pay for these rewards.

然而，銀行並非最終支付這些回饋的人。

So when a customer uses a credit card to buy something, the store is charged what's called an interchange fee.

所以當客戶使用信用卡購物時，店家需要支付「交換費」。

That fee is a percentage of the total sale.

該費用是按總銷售額的比例收取。

It's the bank that issued the card that collects the interchange fee.

是核發信用卡的銀行在收取信用卡的交換費的。

And it's this money that they heavily rely on to pay for cardholder rewards.

它們極度依賴這份收入，因為這筆費用正是支付持卡人回饋的來源。

They're making money on your annual fee and on interest.

它們藉由年費與利息來賺錢。

But the big way with these premium credit cards is the interchange fee.

但以頂級信用卡來說，交換費才是大部分的收入來源。

That's the bread and butter.

這是謀財之道啊。

Interchange fees aren't the same across all credit cards.

所有信用卡的交換費不盡相同。

Cards with no low rewards typically have an interchange of about 1.5% of the purchase price.

低回饋的卡通常收取的交換費是消費總額的 1.5%。

While cards with bigger rewards can have an interchange fee of nearly 3%.

而回饋更多的卡可以收取高達 3% 的交換費。

And the divide between these two types of cards has increased.

這兩種卡的界線已越發明顯。

Banks can make about $0.25 more per average purchase if the customer uses a premium rewards card over a basic one.

若是客戶使用頂級信用卡而不是一般卡的話，平均每消費一筆，銀行就可多賺 0.25 美元。

In 2017, retailers paid card issuers $43.4 billion dollars in interchange fees.

2017 之際，零售業者支付核卡人的交換費達到 434 億。

So it's no surprise that stores aren't a huge fan of these credit card rewards.

所以不意外的是，店家都不太喜歡信用卡回饋。

They don't really want to pay for your free trip to South Africa.

它們根本不想幫你的南非之旅出錢。

Most stores don't have negotiating power over these interchange fees.

大部分的店家沒有協商交換費的餘地。

Payment networks like Visa and Mastercard require them to "honor all cards" which means they have to accept both low fee and high fee credit cards.

像是 Visa、Mastercard (萬事達卡) 等的支付網路，就要求店家要「萬卡尊榮」，意即不管是低費用還是高費用的卡，店家都必須接受。

And as a result some stores reported that they've increased retail prices in order to make up for the cost of accepting credit cards.

結果，某些店家指出它們為了補足刷信用卡的費用，而提高了零售價格。

Which means even if you don't have a rewards credit card, you may still be paying for those rewards.

這意味著，即使你沒有回饋信用卡，你可能仍要為這些回饋出一分錢。

So if you're using cash, you're basically paying for my points.

所以如果你付現，你其實是在付我的紅利點數。

So it can be argued that people who can't obtain credit, those with lower incomes are basically funding the system for others.

因此，可以說那些得不到信用額度、收入較低的人基本上為別人提供了資金。

Others will say, well the merchants get paid more, they get paid on time, there's less theft when people use credit cards.

其他人會說，商人可以賺得更多、準時收到款項，而且使用信用卡會使偷竊率下降。

It's an interesting ecosystem.

這是很有趣的生態系統。

I won't get into the ethics but I will maximize my part of it.

我不會牽涉到道德問題，但我會物盡其用我的部分。

Some major retailers have indicated that they'll challenge the "honor all cards" rule so that they can reject cards with higher fees.

有些較大型的零售商表明它們會挑戰「萬卡尊榮」這項規定，如此一來便能拒收收費較高的卡。

And if stores succeed at driving down interchange fees, banks are likely to respond by chopping rewards.

如果店家成功壓低交換費，銀行很有可能以降低回饋來因應。

This isn't a hypothetical outcome.

這並非假設性的結果。

When credit card interchange fees were capped at .3% in Europe, banks responded by cutting rewards.

如果信用卡的交換費在歐洲以 3% 為上限，銀行就會降低回饋。

For now, with so many credit card rewards out there, it's hard to know which deals are better than others.

現今有這麼多的信用卡回饋，很難知道到底哪家比較優惠。

But with the cost of these rewards built into the things that we buy everyday, just using a rewards card at all can be beneficial.

但是根據購買日用品的這些回饋成本，只要使用回饋卡就會受益了。

If you're using a debit card or god forbid, cash, for purchases, you're literally leaving points and money on the table.

如果你使用簽帳金融卡，或天理難容的現金，你真的就是把眼前的點數與錢拒之在外。

It's like throwing money away every time you use cash.

就像每次現金付款時，你都把錢丟掉。

So get debt free, get disciplined with your finances, put your expenses on each month, pay them off, earn the points, and avoid interest.

所以不要負債、有紀律地管理好自己的財務狀況、每月記帳、當月結清、賺取點數，以及避免付利息。

That's how you win at the points game.

這就是贏得點數遊戲的秘訣。

So Brian Kelly, the card rewards expert in this video had a lot of great tips about how to get the most out of your credit card rewards.

所以囉，片中這位信用卡回饋達人 Brian Kelly，有很多如何取得最多信用卡回饋的秘訣。

We didn't have time to include them all in this video, but I wanted to share them with you in a video extra.

我們沒有時間把全部秘訣放在這支影片，但是我想在另一支影片裡和你們分享。

You can check out those extra tips at the Vox Video Lab.

你可以上 Vox Video Lab 網站看看其他的秘訣。

If you haven't already heard, we've launched a paid membership program right here on YouTube, called the Video Lab.

以防你還沒聽過這件事，我們在 YouTube 上推出一個付費的會員節目，也就是 Video Lab。

For a monthly fee, subscribers get access to tons of special features, including these tips on credit card rewards.

一個月的費用讓訂閱者得以取得許多特別的報導，包含信用卡回饋的秘訣。

So if you're not already a member, and you're interested, head on over to vox.com/join to sign up.

所以如果你還沒成為會員，但是很感興趣的話，前往 vox.com/join 加入會員吧！