Credit card companies make money by collecting fees. Out of the various fees, interest charges are the primary source of revenue. When credit card users fail to pay off their bill at the end of the month, the bank is allowed to charge interest on the borrowed amount. Other fees, such as annual fees and late fees, also contribute, though to a lesser extent. Another major source of income for credit card companies are fees collected from merchants who accept card payments.

Through the fees they get to collect, banks make a profit on their credit card business.

Income from Credit Card Interest and Merchant Fees

The primary way that banks make money is interest from credit card accounts. When a cardholder fails to repay their entire balance in a given month, interest fees are charged to the account. For any given account, the interest charged is equal to the card's periodic rate multiplied by the average daily balance and number of days in a billing period. The periodic rate is the annual percentage rate (APR) divided by 365. In the United States, the average credit card interest rate paid by interest-bearing accounts is 19.33%.

The second largest source of income for credit card companies are fees collected from merchants. When a retailer accepts a credit card payment, a percentage of the sale goes to the card's issuing bank. This is commonly referred to as the interchange rate, which will vary from card to card and retailer to retailer.

The table below shows the year-to-date credit card income for five banks. This information is self-reported by banks from 2019 annual report data.

Company
Credit Card Interest Income
Interchange Income rec'd from Merchants
Total
 Percentage of
Interchange Fees
American Express $8,620,000,000 $4,042,000,000 $12,662,000,000 47%
Barclays $3,079,000,000 $244,000,000 $3,323,000,000 18%
Capital One $18,349,000,000 $3,179,000,000 $21,528,000,000 17%
Chase Bank $51,660,000,000 $20,370,000,000 $72,030,000,000 39%
Discover $9,700,000,000 $1,066,000,000 $10,766,000,000

 

 11%

When looking at income, consider a bank's expenses. For example, when credit card issuers offer loans, some consumers never pay them back. These are commonly referred to as "interest expenses." However, these expenses are just a fraction of the interest income. Here is an industry-wide overview:

Percent of Average Quarterly Assets
 Percentage of Interest Income that is interest cost
Total Interest Income 11.53  
Total Interest Expenses 1.87 16%
Net Interest Income 9.71

 

  

Finally, banks also take in other forms of non-interest income. While a large portion of it is made up of the aforementioned interchange fees, the rest comes from annual, late, cash advance and balance transfer fees. These also have other types of overhead expenses associated with them.

Percent of Average Quarterly Assets
Total non-interest income 3.78
Total non-interest expenses 6.32
Net non-interest income -2.54

 

When both net interest and net non-interest incomes are considered together, credit card companies make a sizable profit. In 2016, these income sources accounted for a positive 4.04% of their average quarterly assets.

How Much Do Credit Card Companies Make Per User?

According to data from 2017, each active account makes $180 on average for credit card companies per year. Again, credit card companies make money primarily from the interest accrued and the interchange fees per account.

Company
Active Cardholder Accounts
Interest Per Account
Interchange Per Account
Total
 Interest %
American Express 62,700,000 $36.93 $60.43 $97.36 38%
Barclays 16,300,000 $180.50 $18.50 $199.00 91%
Capital One 62,100,000 $172.31 $34.09 $206.40 83%
Chase Bank 82,800,000 $118.58 $21.13 $139.71 86%
Comenity 9,589,510 $368.45 $15.25 $383.70 96%
Discover 38,700,000 $191.23 $17.40 $208.63 92%
Synchrony 36,700,000 $243.38 $16.43 $259.81

 

 94%

How Do Credit Card Networks Make Money?

Visa, Mastercard and American Express earn money from Assessment Fees, which are assessed for processing a merchant's credit card transactions. These are different from the interchange fees previously mentioned. The card network—the company, which has the logo on the bottom right corner of a card—collects a far smaller fee with each transaction known as the assessment fee. The fee is 0.14% of each credit card transaction through Visa, and 0.1375% for Mastercard transactions.

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