The CFPB's Public Enemy Number One: The Points Guy??

Is Sen. Dick Durbin working with the CFPB to attack a blogger who helps people maximize credit card rewards?

Life is filled with big decisions: where/if you go to college, who you marry, and what credit card you get. As is the case with most multi-billion dollar industries, there is a garden variety of “experts” deeply invested in making sure you go with their school, child, and credit card, respectively.

That’s why it’s hilarious to me that the allies of big retail stores wasted who knows how much time putting together a report on what anyone with five brain cells could determine: Brian Kelly, aka The Points Guy, who runs a website that helps users pick the credit card they can maximize to their benefit.

This saga is an interesting tale of how various arms of the Democratic Party work together, however. The three relevant components are Senator Dick Durbin, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra, and Accountable.US–a site no one really reads, but which is funded by the Democrats’ dark money machine in order to launder their talking points into the ether.

This tale starts and ends with Accountable.US, which rolled out an 11-page oppo dossier on The Points Guy on February 29th. Within the doc, which contains precisely nothing that shocked me, it says that his pages were accessed, however, on February 16th. 

In the 13 days since then, Durbin and Chopra enter the conversation. For a while now, Durbin has pushed a bill he teamed up with Republican Senator Roger Marshall on, the Credit Card Competition Act. Most of what I know about this bill comes from the relentless ad campaign opposing it that runs on the Ruthless Variety Progrum and the ads I see in airports that push back against it. 

“Mega-stores, led by Walmart and Target, want to take your hard-earned credit card rewards to line their pockets–leaving your travel points and cashback in the dust,” so the pushback goes.

Where things get fun is that the day before Accountable.US launched its public-facing hit on The Points Guy, Durbin posted about sitting down with Chopra to “discuss the agency’s ongoing review of consumer complaints & how CFPB can help protect consumers.” Lest there be much doubt about the content of their conversation, Durbin himself noted that “for years, airlines have profited from employing deceptive and unfair practices within their frequent flyer and loyalty programs.” Sounds like they discussed the Durbin-Marshall bill to me.

The very next day, Chopra’s CFPB rolled out a circular “to rein in rigged comparison-shopping results for credit cards and other financial products.” What this all means in plain English is that the CFPB is threatening new regulations against any group marketing credit cards. Obviously this could be bad news for The Points Guy and millions of Americans who belong to credit card loyalty programs like American Airlines’s frequent flyer program (I’m a Southwest guy myself, so this basically doesn’t affect me anyway).

There’s been much made about the weaponization of government vis a vis people like former president Donald Trump. But, the symbiotic relationship that Durbin/Chopra have from their perches in the Senate and helming the CFPB, respectively, with liberal propaganda outlets like Accountable.US is very interesting.

To put it simply: Durbin’s bill jeopardizes credit card rewards programs that are incredibly popular. Those who work on this issue note to me that he’s failing to persuade people on the merits; now, his allies are going after random bloggers to somehow try and persuade people of the merits of his case. This strikes me as about as convincing as TikTok employing an army of child soldier lobbyists who have threatened to rape and assassinate members of Congress who vote to break the CCP up with TikTok. 

Almost immediately after Chopra’s announcement, Accountable.US rolls in to back them up, lashing out at The Points Guy in particular. “Accountable.US found that Brian Kelly, aka ‘The Points Guy’ raked in millions through highly profitable endorsement deals and sponsorships,” the site wrote.

To the surprise of precisely no one, Accountable.US is “a former project of the New Venture Fund, a center-left 501(c)(3) nonprofit managed by the Washington, D.C.-based philanthropy consulting firm Arabella Advisors,” per Influence Watch. The timing is too cute by half here. Either Accountable.US just decided to randomly look into an internet blogger or it was tipped off by Durbin, Chopra, or someone working with them. 

Accountable.US has lavished praise on Durbin for a while. According to some in the Senate I spoke with, Durbin in particular is known for lashing out at his enemies. “Regarding the credit card fight, Durbin and the CFPB are definitely working together on this,” I’m told. “If [the Senate Judiciary Committee] holds a hearing on Durbin’s credit card bill, expect Republicans to call out Durbin for weaponizing the government against The Points Guy, all as a favor to Illinois-based Discover.”

It’s simply beyond weird to me that The Points Guy rises to the level of a full-blown dossier by one of Arabella Advisors’s little offshoots. Who’s next? Twitch streamers they don’t like? 

Now, I’ve never used The Points Guy’s site for anything. To me, credit card rewards are too complicated to deal with. Just give me cash back and leave me alone. But for people smarter than I, amassing credit card rewards is like the adult version of collecting Pokemon cards–weird, but more people do it than you realize.

If you think it’s bad that a random website that helps you pick your credit card is sponsored by, shocker, credit card companies, wait until you realize how political media works! Most media outlets now are basically just events companies with glorified newsletters, and they convince elected officials of both parties to speak at their little conferences that are sponsored by–you guessed it, companies that pay tons of money for access/protection.

If you’re shocked that The Points Guy works closely with credit card companies, you’re probably also shocked that Apple gives early access to its new technologies, like the super weird VR glasses, to journalists that it thinks will give it favorable coverage!

It’s the same way the DEI industry works. Buy off their consultants, and voila! Your company is not racist. 

There are valid arguments for the union-backed bill Durbin is pushing, to be clear. There are also, in my opinion, far more persuasive arguments against it. But, as the old saying goes: if you’re attacking random dudes with blogs you don’t like explaining, you’re losing.