Well, if you shop for it, a cardholder can get a minimum of 1% rebated back to them, more in cases of special promotions.

But yeah, it's a stupid way to run a payments system.

You would think Starbucks would give you a free cup or something if you filled up your Starbucks stored-value card by EFT instead of credit card. (You would also think Starbucks wouldn't make me accept the wifi TOS every goddamn day, when they have an app/loyalty card relationship with me.)

You would also think that maybe Apple is leaving their options open in the future to 1) link up with retailers' loyalty programs and 2) help retailers bypass Mastercard and Visa and share in the savings.