People’s spending habits can tell you a lot about them. That’s one of the reasons why almost every national grocery store has implemented some form of discount card (more info). These cards help grocery stores track individual spending habits – what you eat, drink, and what medication you are taking.
Well a credit card company has relatively the same amount of information – except much more comprehensive.
Credit card companies know which gym membership you pay for, which grocery stores you shop at, which retailers you spend the most at, and which gas stations you prefer or if you drive a car at all.
Dating websites are supposed to help people match up with their “soul mates” – they do this through various quizzes and personality tests and extensive individual profiles.
But this must take hours, if not days, to complete. And then reading through all the profiles — you’ve officially wasted weeks of your life that you will never get back.
What if these love-sick individuals consent to dating websites accessing their credit card data?
The information about you grows by leaps and bounds. It no longer takes a couple of personality tests to identify who you match up with — just a few clicks of your mouse. You can be matched up with your counterpart that shops at Whole Foods on a weekly basis, pays for a California Fitness gym membership, and expends an average of 15 gallons of gas each week. This data of course can be drilled down much more granular and exact, but the idea is an instant match for data that an individual has already accumulated.
Dating sites can pay a premium to access this data from credit card companies and pass along the costs to their consumers, which I’m sure would be more than happy to sign up when they find out they don’t have to spend days filling out personal profiles.
Imagine – an instant match with someone that shops at the same furniture store as you, similar retailers as you, and frequents the same coffee shop that you do but coincidentally never crossed paths with.
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