Recently, MIT economists Hong Ru and Antoinette Schoar analyzed over a million credit card mailings collected by Mintel, a company that pays people to read their junk mail. The economists scanned the terms of these offers and noted the income and education levels of recipients. Now Jeff Guo writes in the Washington Post that if you want to know what credit card companies think of you, look at the junk mail you receive from credit card companies. Are you "pre-screened" for lots of mileage-reward cards? Banks think you're rich and educated. Do you mostly see offers for low-APR teaser rates? Banks think you're poor and uneducated — and, perhaps, vulnerable to financial traps.
Cards with travel rewards epitomize the kind of product aimed at the rich and educated. It's a fairly exclusive niche — only about 8 percent of credit card offers fall into this category. People in this demographic are the most likely to jet around, and therefore most likely to appreciate a card that will earn them frequent-flier miles. In contrast, the card offers sent to poorer, less-educated people were often loaded with risky features: low introductory APRs, high late fees, and penalty interest rates that kick in if you break the rules. Ru and Schoar believe that the system is tuned precisely to take advantage of those who make financial mistakes. "Backward loaded credit card features with high late fees can only be optimal [for companies] if customers do not understand their actual cost of credit," they write, using a term to describe arrangements that offer low upfront fees but higher penalty fees.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @01:33AM
> Gmails spam filters are almost perfect.
I thought so too, for a few years. Then Gmail started putting email from a customer in the spam folder...and he is from a Fortune top 50 company (with corporate email). Now I check the spam folder quickly a few times a day, just in case.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday October 24 2015, @02:53AM
And if you just mark it NOT SPAM, it will never happen again.
But yeah, occasionally corporate email looks soooooooo spamy that you have to put put the sender in your contacts to prevent it going to spam.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @03:46AM
> And if you just mark it NOT SPAM, it will never happen again.
I did that, a couple of years back, and things were ok for awhile. Just recently this came up in a yellow box, "Gmail couldn't verify that this message was sent by [x].com" ...for email from the same person. Has happened several times now. Something about that Fortune 50 domain??
It's a brand that is known worldwide, maybe it is also a domain that is commonly spoofed?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday October 24 2015, @04:39AM
Maybe you've been phished?
If google gives that warning, it usually has some reason for doing so.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2015, @03:20AM
Don't think I've been phished. One message with that warning was related to our current project for the corporate customer. The other was from the same guy, setting up a conference time--which I was expecting.
Thanks for replying to me -- even though I'm posting as AC.