[mchusma]

This "protection" is not free, in fact is quite expensive. I think most customers would be better off without them. Many customers when faced with having to pay the 3% for it opt out. And most merchants do not have really any protection at all, at least none that I am aware of.

[judge2020]

Compared to the time before cards, merchants are protected from credit fraud by simply being partially connected with the bank so they don't have to hire their own debt collectors.

https://minesafetydisclosures.com/blog/2019/5/29/part-l-a-hi... ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20523646 )

Nowadays cards are taken for granted and always accepted because it's necessary, but it would still be pretty hard to create your own system that checked if a user had enough funds in the bank to purchase something without either Visa/MC (or I guess Plaid).