When you pay your credit card's interest rate (APY) you pay it to the credit card company, not the merchant.
Right, which you start paying in 30 days or so.
That is because the credit card company is extending credit to you, and not the merchant.
Sure, at that point. But that's the non-chargeback case. That's not what happens if you reverse the charge.
The merchant is agreeing to provide you with certain goods or services in exchange of a lump sum payment, in this case disbursed by the credit card company to the merchant on your behalf, just like a bank disburses a sum lump payment to the seller of a house at the closing on your behalf. There is NO credit extended by the merchant, unless you are paying the merchant with a credit card issued by the merchant (i.e. target credit card, etc).
No, one is not "just like" the other. When you buy a house, the seller has *no* agreement with the mortgage company. The mortgage company just pays them. When you buy something with a credit card, there is a contractual arrangement between the merchant and the credit card issuer. These two situations are simply not comparable at all.
With your logic, the seller of a house will be providing credit "in part" to the buyer, along with the bank when a mortgage is closed. Months later, if the buyer of the house quits paying, the bank will know on the sellers door and ask for the money back.
I don't understand what you mean by "with my logic". These are two different factual situations. With a home mortgage, the mortgage company only pays the seller. With a credit card, the merchant has a contract with the bank that sets out a different relationship. This is a factual difference, it's not something you can logic out. You have to read the contracts to understand the relationship. (The contracts are not really freely negotiated though. The credit card issuer tells the merchant to take it or leave it, and Federal law sets out many of the requirements.)
A "credit card" is an instrument by which the issuing institution extends credit to the customer, and for which collects interests payments, service fees, etc. The whole point for the merchant (in theory) is to delegate the issuing of credit and mitigate risk to a third party.
To mitigate long-term risk, but not short-term risk. And to avoid having to do credit inquiries and avoid having to meet other requirements. Nevertheless, the bank's agreement with the merchant permits them to refuse to collect from the consumer on behalf of the merchant. A merchant cannot use a credit card issuer to protect themselves from the risks associated with their own non-performance and the consumer need not sue the merchant if they have not yet made payment. That's what the contracts between the merchant and the credit card issuer say.
This really have nothing to do to whom the bank is extending credit to, since in both cases the bank is extending credit to the buyer, not the merchant (or seller).
No, the bank is extending credit to the merchant in the case of a credit card. Why do you think credit card companies bother to investigate merchants or closing down merchant accounts for fraud? The credit card company is collecting the principle on behalf of the merchant and if you do not owe the merchant the principle, you do not owe it to the credit card company. That is the way credit cards work, at least in the United States.
By the way, in the vast majority of cases, this really does benefit the merchants. Very few people would buy a camera from an online store if they had to investigate the camera and the store the way you have to investigate a real estate purchase. And, of course, the credit card issuers don't make much money if consumers are afraid to use their credit cards.