

Banks turning your purchasing habits into ads - wavesound
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/16/AR2011011604437.html

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cryptoz
WOAH. I think it was just yesterday I said on HN that I'd flip out if any bank
ever did this. And here we are...This is why cash is great to carry around!

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2140095>

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nobody_nowhere
You should not be surprised. Credit reporting companies sell your score data
to credit card and mortgage lenders. Retailers pool your shopping habits into
"co-ops" which are used for direct mail and online ads. It goes on and on.

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jond2062
Citi has been doing this for years on their credit card statements.
Checking/saving accounts was the next logical step.

With the easy money (credit card interest, late fees, debit card interchange
fees, etc) drying up, banks will explore every possible alternative to
generate revenue and cut costs. Anything short of stealing money right from
your account won't surprise me going forward.

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GBKS
Not surprised to see this happen.

My question is the following: When every company has rewards systems and 70%
discounts on coupon sites, coupled with credit card rewards, discounted gift
cards, manufacturer coupons and the new ability to get more discounts by
adjusting my shopping patterns, how do I know what a product is actually
worth?

Companies like Scvngr are trying to insert game mechanics into the offline
world, but it feels like the retail sector is already way ahead in making us
play their discount game.

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gjm11
You know what a product is actually worth by thinking hard about what use or
pleasure you'll get from it. If you're currently trying to deduce what things
are worth from their prices, you're already getting very wrong answers --
price-setting is a complicated business involving lots of psychological
trickery. Sometimes you can sell more units of a product by increasing the
price, precisely because lots of people use the "what it costs is what it's
worth" heuristic; you can often sell more of product X at $P without changing
either X or P, just by introducing a new super-expensive premium version of X
that costs $(10*P); etc.

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kevin_morrill
Next step is "pay per buy" with conversion tracking that these companies can
clearly track.

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brianbreslin
Is this similar to blippys model?

