Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

smauryholmes t1_jae2f5v wrote

Why are the $14b in the expenses category and $30.7b in revenues not proportional? Where does net income come from?

This is a cool graphic with good info but I’m struggling to interpret the actual data.

20

tilapios t1_jae50zm wrote

It doesn't make sense at all. If we compare miscellaneous in the expenses column ($1.8 billion/5%) and processed revenue in the revenue column ($1.6 billion/2.8%), the miscellaneous bar is smaller even though it is larger in absolute dollars and as a percentage.

9

joinkudos OP t1_jae6ih2 wrote

Thanks for the feedback. I had to scale down some of the data points to leave room for the text that clarified that some of the revenue items meant, so the bars are not exactly proportional. For instance in the scaled version (based on absolute numbers), merchant fees took up most of the right side of the visual, and processed revenue had limited space.

Hope you understand. I'll play around with better ways to scale to accomodate nuance like this in future.

−4

tilapios t1_jae9qj0 wrote

This isn't a nuance. This is the entire point of a data visualization. From this sub's rule on qualifying data visualizations: "A data variable must be transformed and mapped onto a visual property such as color, size, or position." If the bars don't scale with anything, they're useless, and what we're left with is a weirdly formatted table with random shapes attached to them.

17

joinkudos OP t1_jae5nzp wrote

This is great feedback.

The aggregate of the right side is the total revenue and the aggregate of the left side is total expenses - so net income is the diff, less taxes and interest expenses. To your point, I should have included the net income in the chart to clarify that. I should probably also have included the totals for both revenue and expenses at the top of the visualization

2

bastardlyann t1_jae0u5t wrote

Near me, more and more merchants are simply passing that fee directly to the customer through surcharges from 2-4%. Makes the rewards seem silly...

9

pk10534 t1_jae4b0n wrote

Cool graphic! I’m surprised Amex collects so little in card fees honestly. Proportionally speaking. Either way, Amex is by far the best credit card issuer imo, especially if you have disputes, cause they’ll always take your side and have amazing customer service

1

rabidantidentyte t1_jae6pgk wrote

Of course Amex will take your side in disputes. Either Amex is liable, your FI is liable, or the merchant is liable. Unless you're doing claims on your Amazon purchases because you overspent, it'll always work out in YOUR favor due to Reg E. Their job is to pass off the cost of fraud to your FI or the merchant.

So many places don't take Amex for this reason - their verification services are ass, so many merchants will be held liable without chip integration/2FA on online purchases. The cost will almost never fall on them. That's why so few banks carry them/so few merchants accept them.

Source: what I do for a living

4

pk10534 t1_jae7e9r wrote

I’ve had much rougher experiences with other banks getting money back.

2

rabidantidentyte t1_jaeam86 wrote

Done over 1000 fraud cases this past year for my employer and the only times our cardholders don't get refunded are if they 1. Participate in a scam, or 2. Send money p2p (usually when they're scammed). P2P has no protections for fraud, and 3. If they stage fraud to get their money back, i.e. buyers remorse.

Usually the merchant refunds the money, or the FI writes it off. Saying usually goes "everyone has the right to make bad decisions, as long as they're the ones making them"

2

pk10534 t1_jaefhd5 wrote

Good for you, I didn’t say I never got my money back, I said Amex made it a lot easier. I don’t understand why you’re talking as if I’ve never had a credit card or bank account and can’t be trusted to speak out about which companies I find easier to work with.

1

rabidantidentyte t1_jaeg90h wrote

Cause they are all subject to the exact same federal guidelines. Customer service is another story, but it's not up to Amex/your FI when you get your money back. It's up to RegE.

2

ISBN39393242 t1_jae8w4h wrote

i’ve always wondered about this breakdown

2