Fast, secure, but not cheap. Credit card merchant fees are on the order of 2% + 0.15 cents per transaction. The industry would still be profitable with prices o

Fast, secure, but not cheap. Credit card merchant fees are on the order of 2% + 0.15 cents per transaction. The industry would still be profitable with prices orders of magnitude lower. A combination of regulatory capture and high fixed infrastructure costs have protected those profits -- but with cell phones, the infrastructure barrier need no longer apply.