Health insurance. UnitedHealth has a blatant vertical monopoly that needs to be dealt with.

To add info, Optum is owned by United. So, you could see your provider at an Optum Clinic, get a prescription from OptumRx, pay your co-pays with your OptumBank HSA, and, of course, your insurance is from United Health. So, literally no part of that interaction left the UnitedHealth ecosystem. And they claimed a profit from every single one of those interactions.

Discover Card used to be owned by Sears Roebuck Co… Back in the olden days, Discover Card was a product for consumers looking to continue building their credit history.

It was relatively easy to get a low-limit Sears store credit card with no credit history whatsoever. After using the Sears store card for 6 months to a year, Sears would offer the Discover Card as a general-purpose credit card. Discover was an attractive financial vehicle as it offered path of least resistance to establish a credit history.

Sears was as ubiquitous a retailer as Amazon is today. Sears credit and Discover offered an unmatched level of purchasing power for the new consumer.

Sears sold off Discover to a third party shortly before they sold themselves to the same company that bought K-Mart. Sears c-suite leadership did not pivot into online sales fast enough and Amazon crowded them out of the future.

Source: I worked for Sears back when most of you were itching your daddy’s pants. I signed up many, many folks for Sears cards and I got $5 each time. Now get off my lawn, my knees hurt.

Discover has always done right by me. I get solid cash back instead of points. They used to have some great card benefits like free extended warranties that saved me money over the years. They were immediately helpful when I have lost a card or when I discovered fraudulent purchases. Customer service has been quick and helpful whenever I’ve needed it. They’ve been more than fair in extending my limits over the years. They don’t push me to do any add on services.

After more than 20 years of being a customer, I don’t see how anyone could do much better to someone who hasn’t paid a dollar of interest in probably at least 15 of those years.

Getting a Discover card was probably the first adult financial step I took, and I really hope they don’t get messed up by this. They’ve helped me grow the life I have now, and while I wouldn’t necessarily say I’d be brand loyal no matter what, I’d be upset if after all this time something happened that would make me want to switch my primary card to something else.

And btw for the record American Express is also their own financial institution just like Discover, but I don’t recommend them for most people for a few reasons: they tend to have higher credit standards, more of their cards have complicated or confusing terms, and many people don’t realize that a number of their cards are still true legitimate charge cards rather than credit cards, meaning they require repayment in full every month rather than allowing a running line of credit. And yes that last one should be avoidable by simply reading terms, but I’ve seen more than one person get bit by not understanding what they’re getting into with Amex.

That said, Amex also has some unique advantages, and if you’re a frequent international traveler those advantages may be enough to make them the superior choice.