# How credit card companies work **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 13, 2006, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-credit-card-companies-work/344274 "2006-02-13T15:11:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Emerald\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Emerald\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emerald_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-credit-card-companies-work/344274/41 "2006-02-15T16:01:23Z")
> [@ParentalAdvisory](#): > > Whoops, botched that one. Let’s see if this one works… > 4000 \* $.001 = $4 > $4 \* 60 sec = $240 > $240 \* 60 min = $14,400 > $14,400 \* 24 hrs = $345,600 > $345,600 \* 365 days p/year = **$126,144,000** Except that your calculations assume they are charging 0.1 cents = 0.001 dollars. Dob said it was only: > [@Dob](#): > > a .001 cent fee or only $0.00001, which means **Ghanima** was correct. I’m not sure **Dob** is right. Even if Visa mainly makes its money from monthly fees and such, just keeping track of the number of transactions each merchant performs and adding it to their bills probably costs them more than a measly million a year. I don’t understand why Visa would go through the trouble. Low volume (1000-3000 transactions/month) merchants would have their bills increased by a few cents each month? Maybe the actually amount is a trade secret and Dob was just using 0.001 cents as an example. ---
**Author:** ![Dob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dob)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-credit-card-companies-work/344274/42 "2006-02-15T19:36:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Maybe the actually amount is a trade secret and Dob was just using 0.001 cents as an example Not a trade secret, just not something that shouldn’t be shared since for all I know we have agreements with some banks to charge less! 🙂 But to help with the idea, the fee is charged twice for each authorization. One charge to the Merchant bank, and one charge to the Issuer bank. The average I gave is for one full auth. So really we would make .002 cents for a full auth. Thanks Maeglin! I always thought Amex supported the bank issued Amex cards. Seems I was wrong, thanks for setting the record straight. Im going thru our internal docs as well to learn more about it. Interesting stuff! ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-credit-card-companies-work/344274/43 "2006-02-15T22:49:38Z")
Hi, **dob**. [exchange secret handshake] You must be at OCE? I’m at OCW. \*\*Kambuckta \*\* seems to be implying that all the transactions that go through Visa are available to all Visa merchants. Unless I missed something, this is absolutely not true. ---
**Author:** ![Dob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dob)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-credit-card-companies-work/344274/44 "2006-02-16T14:32:19Z")
Hey **jsc1953!** I am at oce…[secret handshake]! Didnt know any other fellow workers posted on the sdmb. If my guess is right tho, your an inovant guy right? And hey Maeglin…all this talk about the Amex card issuing, and we are having an internal meeting today to go over the whole thing. Got cool talking points and everything. The credit gods must have been watching this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-credit-card-companies-work/344274/45 "2006-02-16T14:47:53Z")
> [@Dob](#): > > Hey **jsc1953!** > > I am at oce…[secret handshake]! Didnt know any other fellow workers posted on the sdmb. If my guess is right tho, your an inovant guy right? > > And hey Maeglin…all this talk about the Amex card issuing, and we are having an internal meeting today to go over the whole thing. Got cool talking points and everything. The credit gods must have been watching this thread. I got $5 that someone says that they will never catch on. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dob)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-credit-card-companies-work/344274/46 "2006-02-16T16:38:41Z")
> [@](#): > > I got $5 that someone says that they will never catch on. haha…that has already been said many times prior to this meeting! Amex isnt one of our favorite people now… ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-credit-card-companies-work/344274/47 "2006-02-16T16:58:02Z")
> [@Mynn](#): > > Do you find it interesting or is just just a job with a “big company” that you could do with other companies as well? I’m a datamonger, to use a term from a thread from last season’s **Survivor**. And it’s no more or less interesting than when I did the same job for other big companies. OK, maybe a \*little \* more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-credit-card-companies-work/344274/48 "2006-02-17T16:27:33Z")
> [@Dob](#): > > haha…that has already been said many times prior to this meeting! Amex isnt one of our favorite people now… I take that as a compliment. How was your meeting? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-credit-card-companies-work/344274.md?page=2)