there are, the seller just eats the fees

The stores you buy from in person also pay and generally include it in the price margin calculations.
Cards have never been free. They are convenient though.

really most all "cash-back" benefits are just the card saying they'll eat the fee for processing the payment

>>4369
There are fees on both. The credit card companies are evil. Typically, the store eats those fees. It's why you see
>$5 minimum if you use card
at most every family owned place and gas station. You'd be surprised how thin profit margins are on most items in corner stores and gas stations. It's why they're all mostly run by large chains now instead of small families.

For example, beer and cigarettes which are by far the biggest items sold inside the store barely bring any profit to the store itself. I'm talking pennies on a $10+ pack of smokes. Gasoline is the same thing. If the price is $2.99 a gallon the store might take home $0.03 on each gallon.

read this guy's articles but i still dont understand it
https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/how-credit-cards-make-money/
https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/anatomy-of-credit-card-rewards-programs/
https://www.complexsystemspodcast.com/episodes/credit-card-rewards-interchange/

>>4374
Credit cards work like this: If you forget to pay monthly minimum they make $20. They make most of their money from people forgetting to pay their monthly bill (or not paying it on purpose) and the fees they gather at point of purchase. Credit is a scam. You're making money out of thin air and getting it from both sides of the transaction. They also make a ton of money selling your spending habits for marketing research.

In return for those fees both sides get the assurance that the credit card company will always honor the payment for the purchase. Well in theory anyway. In practice it's a huge pain in the ass and you never know when a purchase might be disputed.

This doesn't hurt large companies doing a lot of business at scale. But it's really harmful to smaller businesses that rely on the month pay outs to stay above water.