> Visa and Mastercard get a 2% cut of any transaction.

They don't. In the EU, the intercharge fees is capped at 0.3%. Even in the US they only keep a fraction of the fees, the rest goes to card issuers.

The EU solved that in 2015, the fee is capped at 0.3% for credit cards and 0.2% for debit cards. Call up / write to your representative in whatever country you live in and ask why your country hasn't done that yet.