Most of these savings could be accomplished by having the merchant withdraw the payment from your bank account rather than a credit card.

Frankly, I'm surprised that Amazon doesn't offer this service. Just take the money out from my bank, offer me the same protections as a credit card, and we split the credit card fee: 1% for you and 1% for me :-).

Used to be that violated their credit card agreement to charge more for credit card purchases, but looks like that's not the case since Jan 2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/as-ru...