Roughly 39% of Visa's revenue comes from data processing fees.

Credit card companies make money through interest, annual fees, and more

They also profit from interchange fees, the fee the retailer has to pay the credit card network in order to facilitate a transaction. The fee is typically between 1% and 3% of the transaction amount.

Merchants have to pay credit card transaction fees each time a card is swiped

Credit card networks such as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express must calculate fees for not only the customer, but also the merchant in every transaction.

Bank of America helped establish Visa as a global credit card network business after it rolled out its first credit cards.

At the time, those credit cards were called "BankAmericards." Today, Bank of America owns less than a 2% share of Visa—many other banks (as well as institutional investors) help govern and profit from the network.

American Express charges merchants more than other card companies to accept AmEx, making Visa a more accessible option for many merchants.

Each card network charges merchants a discount rate, which is a fee merchants pay to accept cards. American Express charges higher discount fees than competitors like Visa and Mastercard as the business is more reliant on fees for operation.

Visa, the first credit card network, still dominates competitors with a roughly 52% market share by purchase volume.

Among the major credit card companies in the US, Mastercard had about 25% of the market share in 2025. American Express had roughly 20%, and Discover had the smallest market share of about 4%.

Visa Founder Dee Hock abruptly left the credit card company in 1984, saying his inner voice told him that business, power, and money are not what life is about.

The name Visa was conceived by the company's founder, Dee Hock.

Visa was previously called National BankAmericard Inc. (NBI), but as other banks began to license the network and it expanded internationally, it needed a name less associated with both Bank of America and America itself. Hock believed that the word "Visa" implied no national identification and was relatively easy to pronounce in any language.

Watch a video that visualizes what really happens inside a credit card network when you make a purchase.

Only 14% of transactions are in cash, as of 2025

Credit (35%) and debit (30%) cards have long eclipsed cash as the primary method of payment in the US. It is a primary backup, however, with 90% of customers intending to use cash to pay or store value and 80% carrying cash.

Why American Express charges merchants more than other card companies to accept AmEx

Each card network charges merchants a discount rate, which is a fee merchants pay to accept cards. American Express charges higher discount fees than competitors like Visa and Mastercard as the business is more reliant on fees for operation.

Who actually pays for your credit card rewards?

In 2018, 92% of all credit card spending was made on a rewards card, which seems like a good deal to many who apply for rewards cards offering discounted flights, points, and more. But in actuality, the customers are often the ones who end up paying for the rewards in the grand scheme of things.

American Express runs on a 'spend-centric' model, using perks and merchant fees to drive profit

American Express cardholders tend to spend more money per transaction than other credit card users, which makes the interchange fees merchants have to pay to accept American Express cards worth it while incentivizing other companies to pay the interchange fee as well.

Charting where federal revenue comes from

About 50 percent of federal revenue comes from individual income taxes, 7 percent from corporate income taxes, and another 36 percent from payroll taxes that fund social insurance programs. See breakdown in charts here.

Some banks derive half of their income from overdraft fees on checking accounts

The fees are incurred when a customer withdraws more money than is left in the account, typically around $35 per overdraft. One in 11 Americans pays more than $350 a year in such fees, generating tens of billions of dollars each year for banks..

Over half of Nvidia’s revenue comes from outside the US

This chart breaks down where Nvidia’s revenue comes from—both in terms of which business segments it’s generated by and in which countries. Most of Nvidia’s revenue stems from its computing segment, which includes billions spent by companies building AI.

American Express is both a card issuer and a processing network

Unlike most credit card companies, American Express issues credit cards and processes payments—something called a closed-loop model. By offering both services, American Express profits from both interest and interchange fees, and also has access to more data on how customers spend their money so it can offer better perks.

Consumers will use digital payment processing for nearly $40T in spending by 2028

That's just one signal of the industry's massive growth. Investments in the global fintech industry have grown from $4B in 2010 to $92.3B in 2021, as both businesses and consumers seem to quickly adopt new fintech products, from digital payment apps to robo-advisers.

Visa overstays account for nearly 40% of illegal US entries

In fiscal year 2023, approximately 510,000 people overstayed their visas, while 860,000 crossed the border illegally, meaning overstays accounted for 37% of the total number of new unauthorized arrivals. This represents a shift from 2007 to 2018, when overstays outnumbered border crossings, to 2019, when illegal crossings surged again.

Stablecoins now transfer more value than Visa or Mastercard.

Because stablecoins operate on public blockchains, transfers can occur nearly instantly without intermediaries, unlike traditional credit card networks. This has fueled stablecoins' adoption within the crypto world and in cross-border payments. Stablecoin transfer volume rose from about $3B in 2018 to roughly $18T in 2024, overtaking Visa's roughly $16T and Mastercard's $10T.

How VantageScore and FICO’s algorithms calculate credit scores differently

VantageScore and FICO weigh various factors that determine your credit score differently. For instance, while your payment history makes up 40% of your VantageScore, it only makes up 35% of your FICO score.

Listen to a podcast episode from 1440's editor in chief that explains how a credit card transaction works behind the scenes.

When you buy even something as small as a $5 latte, a global relay between banks and networks like Visa and Mastercard is triggered. It all started with a 1958 campaign from Bank of America that jump-started the credit card revolution.

Gap and Sephora now accept BNPL, despite paying up to 8% per sale

Despite these merchants paying roughly 2% to 8% of each sale's cost (more than they pay for most credit card processing fees), they're signing on, in part, because BNPL can help them improve their conversion rates at checkout.

Why there are microchips in credit cards

Credit cards have evolved significantly since their invention in 1950, but security lagged in the US for years. Despite handling only a quarter of global transactions, the US once accounted for half of all credit card fraud. The 2013 Target data breach helped push the adoption of chip cards, reducing fraud but shifting risks to online scams.

See which Apple products drive the most of its $391B revenue.

Where colleges get their money, visualized

If you're curious about how different colleges and universities generate their revenue, this National Center for Education Statistics webpage offers a clear visual breakdown. See how public, private nonprofit, and for-profit institutions fund their operations, highlighting the differences between funding sources depending on the type of institution.

See the average daily volume of data processed by the internet, from emails to Zoom meetings

During February 2025, over 333 billion messages were sent via email every day, or approximately 231,400,000 per minute. Over 150 million hours were spent daily on Zoom meetings worldwide, but almost 10 times that amount of video content was streamed in the same timeframe.

The costs and fees for a payday loan include a 'finance charge'

Payday lenders typically make money via finance charges, a percentage or dollar amount that the borrower owes the lender per $100 borrowed. While the finance charge can range from $10 to $30 for every $100 borrowed, this would equate to an annual percentage rate of almost 400 percent for a two-week loan.

It cost the IRS $0.36 to collect $100 in 2024

It costs the IRS a significant amount of money to do part of its job—collecting money. For instance, the Internal Revenue Service spent $16.1B to collect $4.7T in taxes in 2023.

How FICO and VantageScore weigh factors in credit history differently

VantageScores are sometimes lower than FICO scores because the algorithms that calculate the two scores weigh the factors that influence them differently. For instance, VantageScores typically weigh payment history more heavily than FICO scores.

Apple Pay is activated on more than 78% of US iPhones

As a result, some banks worry they could be losing ground to the tech company. As consumers continue to use Apple Pay instead of pulling out their physical debit card to pay for everyday items, some banks are fighting back in the digital wallet war.

American Express intentionally targets wealthy cardholders, who spend higher amounts per transaction and tend to make more transactions than the average cardholder, thereby reducing the company's risk.

Tariffs are taxes levied on goods imported from abroad.

See a breakdown of Tencent's revenue streams, which include fintech, advertising, games, and social.

Visa data shows Muslim spending spikes at night during Ramadan

Fasting during the day reschedules economic activity to the night. Visa's spending data shows a surge in Muslim-majority markets during Ramadan at night as restaurants and retailers orient themselves around iftar. The pattern has become a significant target for advertisers and brands.

Tariffs are typically paid by the importing company or organization to the US Treasury.

As of 2024, server products and cloud services make up 40% of Microsoft's revenue

These products generated $97.7B in the 2023-24 fiscal year, followed by office products and cloud services, which accounted for $54.9B during the same period. The fastest-growing revenue source was gaming at 39%, driven by sales of Xbox and first-party software.

The NFL makes most of its money through media licensing deals

The NFL, which reportedly earned more than $20B in 2023, generates its revenue through several key streams. The largest comes from media licensing deals, where networks and streaming platforms pay billions for the rights to broadcast games. Corporate sponsorships are another major contributor.

Rewards credit cards can offer points, travel miles, and more

For every dollar that a cardholder spends on a rewards credit card, they can also receive benefits such as cash back, airline miles, and more. For many, rewards are the reason they make so many purchases on credit cards in the first place.

In 2018, the Supreme Court sided with American Express in a case that significantly changed antitrust regulation.

The US Department of Justice sued Visa, Mastercard, and American Express in 2010 over alleged anticompetitive contracts with merchants. While Visa and Mastercard settled out of court, American Express went to trial and had its case taken all the way up to the Supreme Court—which ruled that both sides of a transaction business must be analyzed to determine a monopoly.

Financial institutions check for lots of things before authorizing a purchase

Before authorizing a purchase, card issuers consider whether or not the cardholder has a high enough available credit limit to make the purchase, where the purchase is being made in order to reduce fraud, and more.

Card issuers are financial institutions that open credit to customers, while card networks facilitate purchases between merchants and customers

Card issuers give customers credit cards, set rate limits, and collect payments. Card networks, on the other hand, dictate where credit cards can actually be used by managing relationships between the network and merchants. These networks make money on interchange fees, which merchants pay to accept a specific card network at their stores.

Banks make money by loaning customer deposits and earning interest

This means the interest you earn on your deposits is lower than what the bank earns on the same amount. Banks often keep cash reserves (though a minimum requirement was rescinded in 2020) but generally invest in government bonds, corporate securities, and loans to other banks. During bank runs, depositors withdraw more than the bank has on hand.

Companies pay multiple fees as part of the IPO process

When a company decides to approach IPO, it typically hires investment bankers—who earn about 7% of the IPO’s gross proceeds—to help set the organization’s target valuation range and schedule an IPO date. But that isn't the only fee associated with the IPO process.

Roughly 22% of US tax dollars go to Social Security

Social security is the US government’s largest expense. You can see other government expenses in a visual breakdown of what one US tax dollar actually pays for. Total spending amounts were converted to cents on the dollar and percentages.

Nearly 3 million people fly in and out of US airports every day—but not all of those passengers generate revenue for the airlines they purchase their tickets from.

Gas stations top the list of riskiest places to use a debit card

Unlike credit cards, debit cards withdraw funds directly from your checking account, and federal laws provide fewer consumer protections against debit fraud. Gas station "skimmers" and long periods of separation from the card at restaurants are some of the more vulnerable spots for use.

Revenue from tariffs goes to the US Treasury's general fund.

See how a good VantageScore and a good FICO score can differ

While VantageScores and FICO scores both offer credit scores between 300 and 850 and consider the same core factors, they weigh those factors differently, and specific numbers can have different meanings depending on the type of score.

Understanding the low corporate tax rate in the US

Corporate taxes, which make up roughly a third of the federal government's revenue, have been calculated using a flat 21% rate since the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017. The current rate is considered low both by historic standards (it averaged over 50% in the 1950s and 1960s) and compared to other countries.

Microchips in payment cards improve security by generating unique transaction codes

Magnetic strips store unchanging data that is easily cloned, but microchips act as miniature computers that encrypt sensitive data. They also resist fraud by creating data unique to each transaction, preventing duplication.