It seems that some Visa-card issuers have actually taken this strategy to heart. That puts pressure on card issuers to keep interest rates high. Visa-card issuers have an income from their cards, even if balances do not build up. For each dollar charged on a Visa card, the merchant pays a fee of about 2.15 percent, of which only about 1.4 percent goes to the issuing bank. But the perks offered on credit cards are expensive.
Several banks offer a frequent-flier mile for each dollar charged.
A second major expense is from the losses due to default and fraud. Maxpayers have the lowest default risk. Although this number is the hardest to estimate, current default rates are over 4 percent of outstanding billings. As a result, I conservatively estimate default and fraud losses from maxpayers cost the issuer an additional 0.75 percent of each dollar charged. Maxpayers also get an interest-free loan.