Short term loan to microsoft
Ostensibly, they use points to avoid having to pay transaction fees to Visa and Mastercard (they usually charge a minimum amount, say 10¢) on each transaction. It seems more likely, however, that the purpose is to get consumers to feel as if they aren't spending 'money'. And, microsoft gets a 0% loan, and gets to keep any money that consumers fail to redeem.
What's in it for me? Hopefully this scrip bullcrap will die. More annoying is how they try to make it hard to figure out how much money you're spending (80pts = $1), and on the xbox marketplace, they sell blocks of 2000 points while most things cost 800 points. Like selling packs of 10 buns and 8 hot dogs.
the whole microsoft points thing came out when zune did, right? Microsoft charged 80pts for a song instead of itunes' dollar (of course, 80pts = $1).
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