As you may already know, every time that you use a credit card with a merchant they get hit with a transaction fee that eats into their sales margin. Sometimes you can actually use this knowledge to help yourself save money as well when it comes to small businesses. Example, mom and pop stores or people that solely operate the entire business on their own.
For example, say you were buying a $500 product and wanted to use your credit card. By doing so, let’s assume that the merchant gets hit with a 4% fee meaning they will automatically lose $20 off that sale. As a result, a lot of times I would ask the small business owner if I could get break on the price by paying by debit instead. In this case, let’s say $490. A lot of times the answer is yes too from my experience.
That $10 is a lot more savings than I would have gotten from reward points or cash back features on the card. Of course there are times where you would want to use the credit card regardless for protection, but this can be a mutually beneficial and sensible way to save money.