# Fees and Frustration

**Published by:** [jer979](https://paragraph.com/@jer979-2/)
**Published on:** 2025-04-09
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@jer979-2/fees-and-frustration

## Content

I got hit by one of those sites where you owe a certain amount and then they tack on the “credit card processing fee.” I felt the frustration rise on a few dimensions. From the customer experience and marketing perspective, it’s a negative for someone to think “Ok, I’m paying $100” only to find out “I’m really paying $103.29.” That’s a downer. But, for me, there’s something deeper. The credit card fees represent an inefficiency in the payments system. They add friction. Because of the existence of the intermediary (the credit card companies), each of us has to pay more than we would otherwise have to. That means that there is less money available for us to do other things we may want to do. That reduces optionality and prevents us from “being all we can be” (as the US Army’s ads offered once upon a time). This ticks me off because it feels like, in small ways people are being cheated out of opportunities. Add up all of those fees over all of those transactions and you are start talking about real money. Now, keep in mind, before I discovered crypto, I was less bothered by this, relegated to only one dimension. But now that I see that there’s a much better technology on the horizon to solve the problem of commerce and trust at scale, I feel frustration, anger, and irritation when I see how it works today. I know the answer is patience, persistence, and perseverance. One day, it will be better and we’ll all have the opportunity to utilize the value we generate in ways that are more aligned with our core purposes. It’s just that sometimes I can’t help but feeling indignant about how it works today, when I know it can (and should be) better. I guess that’s part of the training.

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