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[–] 3 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

Credit card companies posted $176 billion in income in 2020, down from $178 billion in 2018. Interest fees accounted for $76 billion and interchange [merchant] fees accounted for $51 billion in 2020.

https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/credit-card-company-earnings/

This source suggests interest, fees and charges account for well over 50% of income

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    True! Fed data corroborates this, and it appears the gap has only widened since.

    graph of transaction fee margin plummeting and interest shares skyrocketing

    (Image from 2022 CC profitability report)

    So I was wrong. Thank you for the heads up. I’ll correct it shortly.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago*

    Interesting to see that this has only changed, fairly (last 3 - 6 years), recently and the profit from merchant vs interest fees has pretty much flipped!

    I didn't know about the Fed data, so that to me feels like a good solid source as well.

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