[tyre]

I agree that they are a cartel tax on the economy, but their costs are higher than that. They are also taking on risk from credit. If your card gets stolen, the thief buys a $3k surfboard, and then you get refunded, they are out the $3k.

They are also paying for the rewards on top of the points given out.

Again, not saying they’re not making a ton of profit. It’s higher than you’ve said, though.

[gethly]

You are mixing debit and credit cards here. Debit cards have essentially no protection, only credit cards as they are literally loans and lenders invest in protection of their debtors to make them popular.