[kybernetikos]

> Total earnings for the year 2011 for the entire credit card industry were $18.5 billion, which was up slightly from the 13.6 billion earned in 2010.

http://www.bcsalliance.com/creditcard_profits.html

18.6 billion is still quite a bit of money to extract for the service of letting people spend their own money.

All those extra benefits should be unbundled and it'll be interesting to see how many consumers purchase them when their costs aren't being subsidized by cash buyers.