eli5: How do companies such as VISA or MASTERCARD make money?

Question

As title suggests, how do these companies make money? Thanks

In: Economics

Answer 1

For every dollar you spend using a Visa/MasterCard/American Express/Discover/etc, they take $0.01-0.03. The bank that issued the credit card also takes a few cents too. The credit card processor that the merchant contracted with to provide the card readers and service the connection to Visa, also take a few cents.