[lmilcin]

I have worked for an acquirer side of the business where I implemented the credit card application but also took part in complete certification process and day to day business.

For a normal credit card transaction, most of the fee goes to the bank issuer of the card. This is banks' major source of income nowadays (aside people who don't pay off their credit card on time).

This means that most acquiring business -- the companies like Visa, Mastercard and actual acquirers that maintain the infrastructure -- get very small part of that pie but it is still very worth their time.

I don't know what kind of deal PayPal has but 3% suggests their cut is order of magnitude more than any traditional acquirer, but without hassle of maintaining EPOS terminal infrastructure.

And that half a dollar is damaging to micro transactions. Technology was supposed to make it easier to pay for small things, individually. Half a dollar cannot be explained even if each transaction was processed manually.