I’ve worked in the Payment Card Industry (PCI).
Just as magazines and newspapers make money both from subscriptions AND ads, cards make money both on interest AND fees every time you use the card.
And debit card fees are much lower than credit card fees. That is, if you have a debit card with a VISA logo and use it as a debit card the store/business at which you are using the card is charged a fee significantly lower than if you use it as a credit card.
And this is why more and more companies are trying to default the customer to debit rather than credit. And why the banks are, in response, trying to jack up the debit fee.
The first impact will be that retailers will continue to benefit from customers using debit cards rather than credit cards. Beyond that, I dunno. The fee is basically profit, so it means some profits will be cut and they will have to look elsewhere for the money. But to place the onus of gaining more profits on the actual user (rather than the place where the card is used) exposes the banks to customer dissatisfaction. And the customer is free to change cards/banks. Short of overt anti-trust violations, banks can’t just decide to jack up customer fees without the risk of losing customers to banks that don’t.
Correct!!!!!, banks are not in business to run off customers.