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Comment by laurencerowe | Hacker News Reader

Credit card processing costs in the US are absurd. Interchange fees are around 2% on average vs a cap of 0.3% for credit cards and 0.2% for debit cards in the EU.

But cash handling costs a substantial amount too. We should probably all be paying by debit card and charging extra for cash or credit card.

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Should be noted that in most of the EU cashback programmes are also not as big as in the US. Never heard of anyone getting "2% back from everything".

That said, a middleman that takes a smaller fee is still much better for the economy than a middleman that takes in an oversized fee and then magnanimously hands back a chunk of it.

Especially when that middleman is a worldwide oligopoly with far too much power. I try to use local e-payment systems whenever possible.

> Should be noted that in most of the EU cashback programmes are also not as big as in the US. Never heard of anyone getting "2% back from everything".

Which, societally, is a good thing. Credit card rewards programmes are a tax on everyone that disproportionately affects the lowest earners who aren't availing of cashback.

> Should be noted that in most of the EU cashback programmes are also not as big as in the US.

If they charge 100% on everyones transactions then my delux diamond card (sorry you dont qualify) can give me 200% cashback and everyone else can go f' themselves.

Ahh the land of the free

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