>> Someone is paying for all that and the CC company profit on top It's a pretty simple equation really. There are issuing banks, acquiring banks, credit card

>> Someone is paying for all that and the CC company profit on top It's a pretty simple equation really. There are issuing banks, acquiring banks, credit card network and payment processors making money off of the merchant-initiated transactions and then the issuing bank also charges the customer interest if they don't pay their bill in full and some issuers charge for cards that carry some special benefits. On the other side of the equation you have merchants paying for the services CC payment industry provides. Most merchants want the customers to use CCs because those customers tend to spend more, they also realize that by accepting CCs they increase their customer base. Talking retail here, online (where things are actually CHEAPER most of the time) CC is king. Prices-wise it's extremely rare merchants to raise the prices when they start accepting CCs or to charge more for non-cash purchases. So now the last piece here is the actual paying customer and their funds. Nobody is forcing the customer to use any specific method of payment. (The only place I'm aware of where cash is not accepted is some airlines won't take cash for on-board purchases.) Using CCs does have it's advantages for the consumer - not having to carry cash or worry whether you have enough cash on you is probably the biggest convenience. Checkout process is typically faster. With Apple pay/Android pay you don't even need to have a physical CC on you. And then there are things like cash back or hotel/airline points etc. There's also chargebacks as an extra layer of consumer protection but that's a bit of a can of worms.