Debit cards maybe, but of course, debit card fees were significantly constrained in the US by the interchange caps in the Durbin amendment to Dodd-Frank in 2010. Non-exempt debit interchange (most of it) is capped at $0.22 + 0.05%. [1] In Europe it's been capped at 0.2% since 2015.

This compares to a FedNow transfer cost of $0.045 [2] - although I suspect there are significant bulk discounts here to financial institutions -- and surcharges to retailers. I'd call this "give or take the same" as the price of a non-exempt debit payment, but you may disagree.

I believe ACH clocks in at $0.003 in bulk to financial institutions.

Credit cards are not money transfer products so much as loan products. The actual interchange, the cost of processing cards, is quite low. In Europe it's capped at 0.3%. In the US most of the delta between what merchant acquirers charge and interchange is paid back to customers in the form of points or cash back, which basically just don't exist in the same way in Europe or other capped markets. Customers also like the insurance products, the ability to charge back, better fraud handling and the ability to batch their transactions into a single lump sum.

We pay a premium for these premium services.

[1] https://www.checkout.com/blog/revisiting-the-durbin-amendmen...

[2] https://www.frbservices.org/news/press-releases/012722-fedno...