> Visa and its smaller rival Mastercard have surged over the past two decades, reaching a combined market cap of roughly $1 trillion.
In the US there actually exists (begins to exist) now a cheaper alternative to credit card payments: FedNow. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedNow
It's an instantaneous bank transfer, without a credit card company in the middle extracting rents.
For dodgy/disreputable online shops, credit cards will still be better, due to the possibility of chargeback. And of course for actually buying things on credit. But for most regular cases, this shouldn't be necessary.
Systems like FedNow are already highly successful in India (UPI) and several other countries.
In the US there actually exists (begins to exist) now a cheaper alternative to credit card payments: FedNow. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedNow
It's an instantaneous bank transfer, without a credit card company in the middle extracting rents.
For dodgy/disreputable online shops, credit cards will still be better, due to the possibility of chargeback. And of course for actually buying things on credit. But for most regular cases, this shouldn't be necessary.
Systems like FedNow are already highly successful in India (UPI) and several other countries.