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Special offers for credit card purchases?

Leading supermarkets and some private companies offer special discounts for credit card transactions to boost their sales. The same products do not qualify for special offers if payment is made through debit cards. It is so with the cash purchases as well. Shouldn’t the customers who buy for cash or debit card be more qualified for these special discounts (which is usually 10 % and even goes up to 30 % sometimes) than those who buy on credit?

I sometimes wonder whether credit card holders are given these unusual discounts to entice them to go on a shopping spree and make them indebted ‘on their way home’! and for Banks to make a kill by way of interest levied when settlement of the invoices is made after exceeding the stipulated credit period, which could be the norm with the users of credit card.

As to how the supermarkets are making their margins after giving lavish discounts, I really do not know. Over to bankers, marketers and readers of your esteemed newspaper for their comments as to whether my perception is correct or not?

Mohamed Zahran
Colombo