Have you considered that the optimal pricing strategy for credit card companies isn't the one that prevents it from losing money on some customers, but rather the strategy that maximizes revenue overall?
Bajadoc, I don't see where you addressed this. ^^
A business as large as a credit card company is most profitable when it makes strategic decisions that maximize profits
in the aggregate. Individual outcomes are practically irrelevant in the context of millions of accounts. That is why there are credit cards whose terms and conditions permit large losses on
individual consumers, yet produce large profits from the
average consumer. Refining these policies to the point where isolated individuals (like those in this thread) lose the ability to game the system would actually cost the company more (in analysis, development, and implementation of more complex policies) than the approach they use. IOW, if everyone did what these people do, the companies would fail, but since most people don't and never will, the companies earn their profits, the hackers win big, and everyone goes on living.
You seem to be stuck on the assumption that the credit card hackers are doomed to fall into the same traps (late fees, overlimit fees, penalty APRs) that turn many unwise consumers into debt-laden cash cows for the credit card companies, but you can't explain why.