Credit cards offer all kinds of rewards to attract your business, yet most Americans will pay at least $300 more a year in fees than they receive in rewards, which banks will use to pay the top 20% of earners $100 a year, new research shows.

Credit cards offer all kinds of rewards to attract your business, yet most Americans will pay at least $300 more a year in fees than they receive in rewards, which banks will use to pay the top 20% of earners $100 a year, new research shows.

Credit cards offer all kinds of rewards to attract your business, yet most Americans will pay at least $300 more a year in fees than they receive in rewards, which banks will use to pay the top 20% of earners $100 a year, new research shows.

Rewards cards are yet another way it pays to be rich, and it’s expensive to be poor.

“The current banking and credit card system redistributes wealth upward, with the middle- and working-class subsidizing credit card rewards for the wealthy,” researcher Alexei Alexandrov said in a statement. His study was funded with a grant from the American Culture Foundation, which promotes free markets.

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Consumers paid about $1,000 in fees per household in 2024, the independent economist found. Most people don’t know they are paying these fees.

Banks that issue credit cards charge merchants between 1.1% and 3.15% of each transaction. To recover these so-called interchange fees, retailers raise the price........

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