Chapter 537: Re-employment of a Laid-off Adventurer

Chapter 537 -335: Re-employment of a Laid-off Adventurer

Some might say, “With a credit card, can’t you just pay it off before it accrues interest?”

In theory, yes.

But reality is rarely so kind. Self-control, after all, has always gone against Human nature.

Generally speaking, one’s threshold gets pushed higher bit by bit. You start off cautious, but the more you use it, the more accustomed you become. It’s hard to guarantee you’ll never overspend.

Online payments have another “wonderful advantage”: no cash is needed.

The feeling of having actual money in your hand is completely different.

Spending solid, tangible coins that have weight in your grasp gives you the distinct feeling of “I am losing money.”

But when you’re just watching numbers on a screen, that tangible sense of spending money is greatly reduced. Often, before you even realize it, you’ve already gone over budget.

You often see news stories about bratty kids making in-game purchases, blowing through their family’s savings and racking up huge debts. The main cause is surely parenting issues and the child’s own problems, but the cashless system has to bear a tiny shred of the secondary blame.

It’s truly easy to lose control.

The bankers present, truly vermin in Human form, immediately recognized the massive potential of the credit card. They began to think about the specific applications and how to promote it.

“The overdraft limit on a credit card must be set according to the user’s financial status,” one banker said.

A very sound line of thinking. If everyone could have a large overdraft and they ran into deadbeats who had no intention or ability to pay it back, it would lead to significant losses.

“It needs legal backing. If someone fails to pay their credit card debt on time, it should be a criminal offense.”

“That’s easily arranged.”

As long as enough money was involved, a new law could be passed and implemented with lightning speed. And as it happened, no one present was short on cash.

In Sutton, political donations were something done right out in the open.

Can you call donations bribery? No, this is funding contributed to a great political cause.

Besides, legislation regarding credit cards was perfectly reasonable in itself. It could be passed even through normal channels.

It was just that the people present weren’t very patient—or rather, they were accustomed to taking shortcuts.

A few who were more familiar with the donation process had already begun to quietly calculate how much money it would take to get this done.

As for promotion, since Zog had chosen to gather them all together, there was no first-mover advantage to be had. There was no need to hide their ideas. Better to bring them all up now and get the credit card rollout started as quickly as possible.

In this regard, the bankers displayed a level of creativity that surprised Zog.

“I think we can attract people by offering a gift for signing up. Taking advantage of a good deal is a basic instinct.”

“Reasonable. But I think we can go beyond just gifts. We could offer something that accumulates. For example, let’s call it ‘points.’ You get initial points when you sign up, earn more with purchases, and then you can redeem the points for other things once you reach a certain amount.”

“Something as useful as a credit card shouldn’t be given to the common folk for free. We should claim to charge a fee.”

“No, that’s a bad idea. A fee would definitely deter many people who are on the fence about getting a card.”

“You misunderstand. I mean we only *claim* to charge a fee. For example, we say the card has a fixed annual fee, but if they use it a certain number of times, that fee is waived.”

“I see. So we never intended to make money from the fee, but we tell people it’s a benefit we’re giving them.”

‘A benefit?’ Zog, who had been listening without a word, couldn’t help but marvel at their moral flexibility.

To shamelessly call that a benefit, without batting an eye… you had to hand it to these old-school capitalists.

“Hahaha, I knew you’d understand, Sir. We win on both sides of the coin, and the people just *think* they’re winning. That’s what we call a triple win.”

The group quickly came up with other ideas, like collaborating with merchant guilds to release co-branded cards that offered discounts on designated products.

No real discounts, of course. But you could make the card itself look very appealing. Cards co-branded with artistic works, especially things like games and comics—the fans would eat that up. And of course, those cards would have to be limited edition.

And a referral program: when an old user brings in a new one to sign up, both get a reward.

And during online checkout, the credit card payment option should have a tag that says “Up to XXX off!”

As for how much you could actually get off? Well, the most you *could* get was indeed that much.

Student cards! Cards exclusively for students, offering discounts on school supplies.

Children’s cards!

“Hold on, let me say something. Children’s cards sound a bit much,” Zog interrupted the bankers, who were in the throes of a brainstorming frenzy. “Besides, children don’t have money to spend.”

“But what about child laborers? Sir Zog, you still don’t understand us Humans. Children are the most susceptible to temptation. If they have even a little pocket money, they can’t help but spend it. Give them a chance to spend their future earnings, and anyone who could resist… well, they’d be a real number one.”

The speaker held up a thumb.

“Besides, wouldn’t this be a huge boon for your toy and game business?”

“Children don’t have a clear understanding of the world yet,” Zog said.

“That’s precisely because they don’t have a clear understanding of the world!” the man replied, as if it were the most obvious thing.

Zog had nothing more to say. ‘I often feel out of place because my moral bottom line isn’t low enough.’

He spread his two paws and said, “Forget it. My shopping platform will not support payments from underage accounts.”

The bankers didn’t react much. Their ample life experience had made them experts at hiding their emotions.

“We regret your loss. The Minstrels’ harps will sing of your virtue, and even the saints on the stained-glass windows of the cathedrals will look upon your integrity with awe.”